“When my father passed away that’s when I took time out of advertisement and I kind of subconsciously went back to doing the thing that made me feel happy and that was drawing and painting.” –Nanami Cowdroy
In most cases, some people need a “push” in order to express themselves. Whether its something you experienced, someone you lost, or something that came to you in a dream. Each of these different ways gives you a different feeling, a different emotion. For instance, if you experienced a wrongful crime against someone you loved, then there might be anger behind your “art.” If you lost someone, then maybe there is sadness, and finally, if something came to you in a dream then you have free range on where to continue taking what you experienced.
In Nanami Cowdroy’s case, she lost her father. Someone who had been her supporter since as long as she could remember, and when her father died, that was her sudden “push” back to her roots, back to what made her happy…drawing and painting. She took a break from her advertising business and went back to her Japanese-European roots by visiting Japan. She would go out by coy ponds with a blank piece of paper and let her hands do the work, painting what she feels. It becomes apparent in many of her pieces that she likes painting watery figures such as fish, flowers, etc.
You can tell in all of Nanami’s pieces that there is a theme. She uses dark, bold lines because she says, “she wants delicate figures to feel powerful, and that’s what dark lines do.” The thicker the black line, the more powerful that figure turns to be, and the skinnier, more faint lines the less powerful, more delicate that figure will turn into. In an interview found on YouTube conducted with Nanami, she talks about how she likes her art in black and white more then with color because it causes the people to look deeper, it gives her artwork honesty because you don’t have certain colors swaying you one way or another.
Sometimes, you just need a little push. A push to start doing what you’re meant to do.
Great analysis of Nanami’s art and the meaning behind it! Often times I have trouble going beyond what I physically see in a work of art so learning about how dissect emotions and motive is really interesting! The point she made about black and white as opposed to color is neat! I like black and white better because it’s easier for me to see detail a lot of times, but I never would have thought about looking deeper and not being swayed by color.
This was a beautiful post. I feel that you truly captured what Nanami was portraying through her artwork. It just goes to show that even in a tragic moment, creating art can be a way to channel all of that emotion into something beautiful to share with others. I loved the pieces!