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Artist: Deep Hawaii Art
Title: "Timothy Goes to the Disco" Tuna Gyotaku
Medium: Original acrylic paint, watercolor and PrismaColors on Korean Mulberry Paper with grass inclusions. Unframed.
Size: 22" x 35"
Lāna`i artist Kristin Belew painstakingly painted this life-size Gyotaku original of a Makerel Tuna chasing a squid, using acrylics, watercolors and PrismaColors.
Gyotaku is a traditional Japanese style of fish printing where each original piece of art is taken right from the fish. Kristin applies acrylic paint to the actual fish then presses rice paper onto the specimen to receive the paint. She then adds in details! Each fish is eaten or used for bait afterwards.
Fun facts from Kristin:
"Timothy is a Tuna, known as Kawakawa in Hawaiian (pronounced Kava-kava). We often find these fish "boiling" or in a feeding frenzy near bait balls or highly concentrated groups of smaller bait fish. Since there are so many hungry fish in one area, we often catch more than one. These tuna have crazy, colorful, shiny striped patterns on their anterior dorsal side. The tiny squid actually came from a different fishing trip, but from the same species of fish. After landing a kawakawa, it spat out this tiny squid it had previously eaten. I took the little squid and it hung out in a ziplockin my freezer for a few months before Timothy came along to print. Squid have vary small color-changing cells called chromatophores that allow them to change their patterns and colors. Since theseTunas have such bold and shiny designs and squid have the flashy ability to change colors, I decided these two belong at a disco, hence the name! Kawakawa tuna have very dark red meat and are very rich in flavor. I prefer searing my tuna for dinner. The small squid here in Hawaii are not as often consumed by people, but are commonly used as bait for good reason!!"
Category: Deep Hawaii Art
