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Maryland Printmakers
Featured Artist
FEATURED ARTIST: GAIL YANO |
"Briefly, in the past, I occasionally took an art or craft related class,
but never formally studied at the high school or college level until I retired
from IBM in 1992. My career wound through computer programming, systems
engineering, computer sales and financial management; nothing ever art related.
Since then I've primarily
 attended classes at Montgomery College
in Rockville, entered a few shows and have attempted to become and "artist."
Commercial success has eluded me yet I plod on because of the "high" creating
the images gives me."
Gail has been working on a series of lithograph and chine colle portraits of the kabuki actor Bando Tamasaburo V. To best describe how she has come to create these images, a few exerpts from her artist's statement make clear the dynamic nature of her work as it relates to the dynamic nature of her subject. "In 1982 I attended a lecture/demonstration on the Grand Kabuki Theatre at the Japan Society in New York City." An audience member asked how a man convincingly portrays a woman on stage. Bando Tamasaburo responded that he would rather demonstrate than say. Through posture and "Without benefit of makeup or costume he transformed from a macho samurai to a deferential courtesan." The audience and I gave him a standing ovation. "Could I freeze the essence of this idea visually…that transformation from a man with gentle features to a breathtaking beauty? Now, fourteen years later, can I evoke the same magical transformation in only two dimension?" Gail proceeded to portray Tamasaburo in a series of seven portraits using lithographic and chine colle methods. "While each portrait can stand on its own, in a series, one goes back and forth between the first and the seventh state wondering how each subtle change in aggregate can effect such a radical metamorphosis." The series of seven prints is an edition of eight; the other costumed portraits are unique collages. |