Koitsuto? - by Jeff

This is my second painting of eggshells on manga (Japanese comics). The title of this painting comes from the Japanese writing in the manga that makes up the background. Koitsuto means "with this guy?" At least that's what my son tells me. I know a little Japanese, but he's actually been to Japan, so I always go to him for translation.

My basic idea here was to use some elements that would seem perfectly mundane to someone in Japan, but to most in the west would come across as exotic and unexpected. I probably rendered some of the Japanese characters incorrectly, and they may actually say something completely different from my reference material. But I noticed as I was painting it that the word "enfatry" was in the manga; obviously meaning "infantry". See what I'm getting at? The same impulse to depict something from another culture was the inspiration for the manga itself - with the same disregard for the meaning of the original! It's kind of like a game of telephone: with each step getting further from the original meaning. All you're left with is the abstract aesthetic.



60" x 48" oil and encaustic on panel