Surreal artist, Naoto Hattori brings some interesting ideas to the plate. Look at his work.. an English Bulldog instead of Mona Lisa.. a garden full of eyes.. all the vivid colors. You know, his style really reminded me of Salvador Dali. They’ve both got that surreal, fantasy like taste within their art and they’re both terrific artists. I really like how he uses such a soft tone with each piece even though their all subjects that definitely don’t fit the soft tone. His hearty colors bring out the liveliness within his creatures. Look at his work, none of them are evil or horrific looking (at least in my view) they all have a kind of energetic feel to them. He doesn’t use any dark colors at all either… notice? A lot of them all have that tan, sandy kindof color to them..which really makes his creatures stand out. Take this samurai lady for example, it incorporates a lot of these similar traits. You’ve got the light tan skin tone along with the darker tan frame. Even though he only uses tan as the primary color and really the only color of the painting, it really is quite unique. I don’t know the reason of having no face. It does indeed make her a little mysterious with those daunting, red lips just grinning at you. She seems like a ghost, a tan ghost. It’s like a portrait you find when your walking down the corridors of haunted houses. And guess what? Her hair is even tan too! What a coincidence, I thought all Asians have black hair….
This next piece is also really interesting. The title of this piece is Skullpath. If you look at it, you can kinda see where the name came from. To me the skull which looks as if it could be sitting on a spine, draws similarities to a totem. The tall, colorful, winged, poles Native Americans created and worshipped? This same picture draws comparisons to that in that they could both be seen as a religious icon. This skull could lead the path to some new world or spirit. I see it as a spiritual tool in a way. As you can see, it’s still alive with the octopus tentacles squirming around it. A skull on a living octopus, an interesting thought huh. That’s how I comprehended this picture with its title. Once again, a lot of use of the tan, just in many different tones and values. The red triangle brings some mysteries though…
Well the Mona Lisa sure had a makeover. Check out those great wrinkles on her face! Not to mention those protruding fangs shes got sticking out. And she really turned out to be quite the monster, just look at all the destruction she caused behind her. I saw this to be a really interesting and odd piece at the same time.. You always see the Mona Lisa represented and done in numerous ways, but this one’s pretty funny. I love English Bulldogs which adds to my fondness for this piece. She still has that exact same poise, which every portrait seems to have from this period, hands crossed and a serious face. She also managed to keep the same clothes on, even with all her transformation. Surprisingly they still fit her. I never pictured an English Bulldog with a head piece on though…
One last piece that I thought really brought out some of the artistic qualities of Naoto Hattori. Here’s what looks like some zombie spirits coming out from a dead body on the ground with the big, enchanting cross behind them. An interesting concept. I didn’t think the cross brought spirits of this type back to life. They are almost alien like with parts decomposing within their body. I thought it was really unique how the cross is actually coming out fro within the dead body on the ground. It’s as if everything was suddenly released from the control of this being. However, what is Naoto trying to describe to us here.. Does the cross bring out the unhappy attributes from within dead beings or do the unlikeable contents within us (such as these spirits) become releashed from us when life is over to cleanse our soul for the next world? That’s how I interpreted this picture.
Naoto Hattori really has an interesting style. Many of these are his older works.. later I”ll share some of his more recent works and what looks like a new direction he took.
