Hanae Sasaoka

Hanae Sasaoka
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I was born in Japan. After earning BA of marketing in Tokyo and working for several years in a business field, I found myself to have always had a desire to learn art in my heart, so I put it into action at Art Students League of NY. I was so immersed in creating works for 5 years. And now, I try to evolve my creature Animal-Headed-People in this new place.

It is necessary for us to live with wearing a mask, in other words, there is no human being without a mask. A mask has a social face expression with rare emotional ups and downs. Thanks to such a mask as breakwaters we succeeded to live without harming each other. Mask is considered as an icon of coexistence in my work.

My birdman series, I follow an animal-headed characters in such a quite animistic work, the Animal Caricatures (Chojugiga), known as the first manga drawn in the mid-12th century in Kyoto, Japan. I make a collage for bird/animal mask which offers more flat manga-like image to emphasize an expressionless looks, while drawing a body in a lively manner further highlights the contrast of expression in face and body.

I met VAK artists at the art fairs, and I am so impressed there is such a artist group with terrific quality of art in a local area. VAK provides me a great opportunity to learn from and exchange an inspiration with passionate artists.