Artist: Deep Hawaii Art
Title: BigEye Gyotaku "Face Off" Lamp
Medium: Original acrylic and Prismacolors on rice paper + archival glue to create shade
Size: Height of lamp: 19"; size of shade: 8" high x 8" diameter
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.
Lamp: This is a special functional work of art created by Lāna`i artist Kristin Belew from an original gyotaku piece. She mounted the original gyotaku rice-paper print onto a lampshade via archival glue - papier mache style. A one-of-a-kind treasure!
Gyotaku: Common Bigeyes, Heteropriacanthus cruentatus are known as aweoweos in Hawaiian. This name means "glowing red!" Like many other nocturnal fish, the aweoweos are a deep red in color and have huge reflective eyes. These fish congregate under ledges, in caves and other dark places during the day. at night they come out to swim freely and feed. Kristin decided to place these fish face to face either ready to duel or ready to kiss...you can decide!
Photo on left shows Bigeye gyotaku lamp. Photo with two gyotaku lamps lit up: Bigeye in background.
Category: Deep Hawaii Art