From the Artist a Day widget on my iGoogle, Edwin Ushiro:


The image above is actually a bit different from (the first image of his work that I saw) but shares the same dreamlike, flowing quality combined with realistic representation of the human form. Now that I think of it, there's an anime quality to what little I've seen of Ushiro's work. What initially struck me about the image, though, was that it provoked questions: Are those two girls pressing up on each other? (As someone who delights when I find representations of queers in the media I hoped the answer was yes.) Does the difference in color palette between the two indicate that one is "real" and the other a ghost or astral projection? Turns out I read the artist's intention about color correctly. This is what he says in his artist's statement:

Vietnamese, Hungarians, and Zimbabweans all share this common story of a Pressing Ghost. Usually occurring when one awakes from sleep, is the sensation of limbs & legs going numb, heavy pressure felt near the chest region, and the helpless victims inability to move. The Hawaiians believed this to be the result of "Pule Ana 'ana," a sorcery chant that includes praying someone to death. Such conditions can also be medically explained as a delay in chemical release in the nervous system.

Ushiro's bio says that he was transplanted from Maui to California, and by his last name I'm guessing that he is at least part Japanese. He mentions in his bio that he has experience in the film industry; I wonder if this experience has influenced his work, or whether I am right about his heritage and that his connection to Japanese culture has influenced it as well. Of course, I know plenty of anglos, myself included, whose work has been influenced by elements of Japanese culture, including anime.

Ushiro also shows a degree of technical savvy not apparent in other artists: he has a drawing blog as well as a stand-alone website.

In other news, a friend sent me this link to a fun little Shockwave app, just in time for spring: Go here and click and drag your mouse all over the screen. Yay flowers! Yay springtime! If they wanted to make it a Boston-style flower garden, they'd have to add some snowflakes once the flowers had sprouted. So far this year, no snow on tulips. But the tulips aren't up yet, and, you know, global warming...