Original artwork description:

Ballpoint pen drawing of a Japanese theater mask on cloth-bound paper board.

Part of a series of square paper boards bound with pieces of an old men's kimono. My father had a kimono robe, brought from a business journey to Japan, along with other objects decorated with traditional japanese images and portraits that my sisters and I found somehow frightening. There wasn't anything frightening about them, however the shape of the asian eyes itself was enough for us to imagine and call our boogieman "the Chinese man" (asians were all Chinese for us at that time). When we were home alone, any unknownn sound would make us run and jump on the bed, look at each other and agree that it was "the Chinese".

Materials used:

Ballpoint pen, gesso

Tags: