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EVEN if the Los Angeles dry cleaner hadn't destroyed the heirloom black silk kimono his father gave him, and even if he hadn't misplaced the backup kimono, artist Masami Teraoka is saying goodbye to his usual choice of art opening attire.
Masami Teraoka, whose work
is featured in the Academy of Arts
new exhibit, has a clear view
of East and WestBy Suzanne Tswei
Star-BulletinFor the reception of "East is West in Hawaii" at the Academy of Arts last night, Teraoka chose Western garb, a reflection of his current state of mind.
"I don't think I'm feeling very much Japanese any more," said the 65-year-old artist, who was born to a family of kimono store owners in Onomichi, a small town on the Inland Sea.
Nevertheless, the academy is paying Teraoka homage with a special exhibit featuring the Japanese woodblock-like paintings that made him famous. The exhibit is part of the "East is West in Hawaii" show, which also features the work of 21 other Hawaii artists.
David de la Torre, academy associate director, describes Teraoka as "one of the most important artist" in Hawaii. Teraoka, who opened a series of exhibits in New York City, is sought-after by collectors on the mainland, Japan and elsewhere."Masami is the one person whose work has epitomized the East meets West theme. He was raised in Japan ... and Japanese children have a different way of looking at the world than American children," said de la Torre.
"He's able to draw upon that deep ancient culture that is Asia, but he also has the experience of living in this country.
"His work is always exquisitely beautiful to look at, and he is always using the visual beauty to send a serious message. He is a very serious artist who uses his art to make social, political comments," de la Torre said.
It was Teraoka's unique East-meets-West perspective -- with eye-catching beauty and biting humor -- that gained him critical and popular acclaim more than 25 years ago.
Then a struggling artist living in Los Angeles, he had begun a series of paintings, McDonald's hamburgers invading Japan, in reaction to the westernization of Japan's culture.
For the series, he decided to abandon his Western art training and teach himself a painting style that resembled ukiyo-e prints or traditional Japanese woodblock prints.
"Going to a Japanese aesthetic vocabulary was pretty scary. The art scene was: Everything was conceptual. I felt I was the only one totally going against the trend."But I had a personal love for ukiyo-e prints. I thought this is beauty. I wanted to use that aesthetic vocabulary to comment on American social implications.
"I thought I could bring the two together, cook them and get a new recipe," Teraoka said.
He gained notice instantly in 1975 when a painting from the series, "McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan/Geisha and Tattooed Woman," appeared in a group show in Pasadena.
In the painting, a blond woman covered with Japanese gangster tattoos slurps a bowl of noodles while a befuddled geisha holding a hamburger asks how to tackle the American food.
The academy's exhibit does not have this particular painting but it has original watercolors and prints from the same series. The exhibit also includes of other signature Teraoka paintings and prints: "31 Flavors Invading Japan" and his AIDS series.
"It was a big surprise to me the McDonald's hamburger (painting) was a big hit. People came up to me and told me they really liked it, and it got really good reviews. I didn't expect that. All I knew was I wanted to understand and use my own heritage," Teraoka said.
As a child waiting for his parents in the family's kimono store, Teraoka copied the drawings of Hokusai, a premiere Japanese woodblock artist. The adults around him immediately recognized his talent looking at his chalk drawings on the concrete floor.
His father, who had to carry on the family business and abandon his dream of coming to American to become a jazz musician, encouraged Teraoka's artistic studies."I was 5 when World War II started. When it was over, I was 9. In war time, everything was scarce but my father always bought me expensive paints, painting books and supplies.
"He had an artist soul. He understood," Teraoka said.
His mother, with a long line of artists and writers in her family, also supported his art inclinations until Teraoka wanted to come to America to further his studies after college. He received a bachelor's degree in aesthetics from Kwansei Gakuin University in Kobe.
"She was reluctant, but my father, because his own dream was crushed, was not going to restrict his son. He was all for it," Teraoka said.
Teraoka moved to Los Angeles with a one-way plane ticket and $600 when he was 25. Immediately, he encountered a language and cultural gap, and poverty.
"I got along OK but I really couldn't understand very much. Everything was flying over my head. Usually in a social setting, I'd fall asleep in 5 minutes because I couldn't understand what people were saying," he said.
But Teraoka felt comfortable in a country where he felt his individuality was respected. "I never really felt homesick once," he said.
He worked as a janitor in a department store from 4 until 7 a.m. and then went to a junior college to beef up his English. He also took classes at an art center. Later, he graduated to being a dishwasher at a soup bar in a department store.
After three years, Teraoka was accepted into the prestigious Otis Institute in Los Angeles.
"I knew as soon as I got to Otis that I was in paradise. And I was totally lucky. I met people who helped me," Teraoka said.
A classmate, the wife of a bank owner, gave him $100 to help with tuition. A roommate who was just as poor as Teraoka, loaned him $300 for tuition and stole cheese from a supermarket to feed the starving artist.
"I was serious artist; maybe that's why they wanted to help me," Teraoka said. He supplemented his income with sales of his student artwork and commercial illustrations, and became a full-time artist after he received a master's degree in fine art from Otis in 1968.
Eventually, Teraoka grew tired of the smog, moved to Hawaii, and in 1980 bought a small house in Waimanalo (only blocks from a McDonald's restaurant) where he lives with partner and artist Lynda Hess.
Since the 1990s, Teraoka's work has taken a new direction. Gone is the pleasing, serene Japanese aesthetic. Instead, a painterly but ominous vision of the world emerges to confront the viewer with cloning, technology, sex, violence and other contemporary issues.
"He's constantly evolving and constantly emerging. The themes in his work are always relevant and important subject matters. I think he's in a constant state of amazement about how Americans go about their lives," de la Torre said.
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