Spotlight on Gallery Artist – Darlene Oshiro, Theta, Hawaii

We are pleased to share a little bit about one of our artists, Darlene Oshiro from Hawaii, and her interesting submission of “Tribal Spirit”.

Tell us a little about yourself as an educator, a photographer, and 2D artist.

I started teaching art in 1974 on the island of Lanai.  I was the first certified art teacher on the island. Most of the Hawaii schools I taught at had limited funds for the arts. I had to be very resourceful and creative. My art supplier was the environment and nature. This was the beginning of mixed and multi-media creativity projects. After 20 years of teaching at the middle school level, I realized my art program was not evolving or growing like some of the other schools in the state and the nation. By observing various art exhibitions and contests for students, I learned about expectations, skill levels, art media, technology, materials, composition, creativity, and imagination. This made teaching exciting, a refreshing rebirth of exploration and creativity.  Each student had their strengths, so we focused on developing them. I discovered applying strengths and creativity worked well with mixed media. It was also within our limited budget. Then, my art students started to win art awards for the state and qualified for national competitions. Students moving on to high school continued to be recognized for state and national awards. In 2015, I peacefully retired and moved on to another chapter in my life called "retirement".

Tell how your work, “Tribal Sprit”, became a reality.

My composition, called "Tribal Spirit", evolved from my love of colors, drawing, and photography. Working on my strengths and passion makes it easy to start creating, exploring, and playing with many possibilities. The tribal face was created about 10 years ago as a class demonstration sample of blending and overlapping color pencils. I always enjoyed capturing nature, animals, and people on my camera.  When the pandemic started there was a special photography course for the iPhone, and from it I've learned to use various apps: "Retouch", "Brushstroke"," Superimpose", "Reflect" and many more. The Hawaiian culture believes all things have a spirit soul or mana. The banyan tree is one of my favorite trees. Its roots and branches are so massive and strong. I saw the pencil sketch blending and melting into the banyan tree and becoming one. One soul, one spirit.

Do you have any tips on how you did this mixed media artwork?

I used my iPhone to take a photo of my tribal face.  Next, I used "Brushstroke" to manipulate and morph it.  Also, I changed the color values of the original sketch so it would blend with the photo of the banyan tree.  Next, I used "Superimpose" to place the tribal face over the tree and blended it in.  Now the tree and face are one spirit. To make it more interesting, I used "Reflect" to have a reflection of the image in water.  

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Since I have started this photography course, I've created over 100 different compositions.  Art stimulates the mind, creativity, and the imagination.  Endless possibilities...I will never get bored.

 

The Arts & Humanities Jury looks forward to you returning often to view exciting new content and to share in the joy of creativity.   

We invite you to view the Art Gallery, click here. 

Keep the conversation going, please use the comment section below to suggest new topics, ask questions, or give us your input.