It’s Day 152 and I feel like I’m getting sick or I’m being overrun by female hormones…how inconvenient those can be when all I want to do it get something done, be creative, have fun and all my body wants to do is go back to sleep.  Well, I’m going to finish my blog (already obviously finished my painting!) and try and relax.  What I’d like to do is take the dogs on a nice walk in this beautiful day, but alas…join me in celebrating the wonderful Taro Okamoto today.  ART is EXPLOSION…it really is.

Tarō Okamoto (岡本 太郎 Okamoto Tarō, February 26, 1911 – January 7, 1996) was a Japanese artist noted for his abstract and avant-garde paintings and sculpture.

Taro Okamoto is the son of cartoonist Ippei and writer Kanoko Okamoto. He studied at

Panthéon-Sorbonne in the 1930s, and created many works of art after World War II. He was a prolific artist and writer until his death, and has exerted considerable influence on Japanese society.

Among the artists Okamoto associated with during his stay in Paris were André Breton (1896–1966), the leader of Surrealism, and Kurt Seligmann (1900–62), a Swiss Surrealist artist, who was the Surrealists’ authority on magic and who met Okamoto’s parents, Ippei and Kanoko Okamoto, during a trip to Japan in 1936.

Okamoto also associated with Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Robert Capa and Capa’s partner, Gerda Taro, who adopted Okamoto’s first name as her last name.

In the 1950s, he received a commission from the Oriental Nakamura department store

in Nagoya to create a large mural on the main facade of their flagship store. The mural was demolished after Oriental Nakamura was bought by Mitsukoshi in the 1970s. In 1964 Tarō Okamoto published a book titled Shinpi Nihon (Mysteries in Japan).

His interest in Japanese mysteries was sparked off by a visit he made to the Tokyo National Museum.

After having become intrigued by the Jōmon wares he found there, he journeyed all over Japan in order to research what he perceived as the mystery which lies beneath Japanese culture, and then he published Nihon Sai-hakken－Geijutsu Fudoki (Rediscovery of the Japan－Topography of Art).

One of his most famous works, Tower of the Sun, became the symbol of Expo ’70 in

Suita, Osaka, 1970. It shows the past (lower part), present (middle part), and future (the face) of the human race. It still stands in the center of the Expo Memorial Park.

After being lost for 30 years in Mexico, on November 17, 2008, his mural “The Myth of Tomorrow”, depicting the effects of an atomic bomb, was unveiled in its new permanent location at Shibuya Station, Tokyo. In it, a human figure burns and others appear to run from flames. The work was made for the Hotel de Mexico in Mexico city by Manuel Suarez y Suarez.

Kawasaki, his hometown, has constructed the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art in Tama

Ward, northwest of the city. His studio/home is also open to visitors and is located in Aoyama in Tokyo.

Biography is from wikipedia.

I enjoyed doing today’s painting even though my body is acting wacky.  How could you not with all the bright colors?  There was a sense of freedom about today’s piece that I really liked.  I could’ve kept going, but I wanted to keep it a little simple.  I felt like if I kept going there would be a chance I would’ve ruined the piece…so I got to a certain point and stopped.  I hope you like today’s piece and I’ll see you tomorrow on Day 153!  Best, Linda