“My Piano Teacher, Mrs. Asaoka” 11? x 14? oil on panel
Daisuke “dice” Tsutsumi is an illustrator/painter based in San Francisco. Currently, he works as an Art Director at Pixar Animation Studios. Yesterday, I went to the Monsters exhibit at the Copro Gallery in Santa Monica and was introduced to this artist's work through “My Piano Teacher.” Here is the story that goes along with that piece.
“This is based off of my childhood experience of taking piano lessons from this lady named Mrs.Asaoka. She always slapped my hands if I missed keys(well…., I never practiced home…) and told me I sounded like a little piglet when I sang. (yes, she really said it!) She was probably a nice person and wanted me to play well but my child's instinct just didn't accept her garish dresses and marble angel statues by the gate of her house…. Man, I think I would have been playing in Carnegie Hall instead of drawing cartoons today if my genius music talent hadn't been destroyed by this traumatic experience!”
“Well, it was a book cover illustration I did last year. It was an American release of a classic Japanese novel, Season of Infidelity. The collection of stories cover a variety of topics, from hedonism and porn stars to first loves and broken marriages. So I was asked to do a “tasteful” bondage scene.”
“The theme was Time Flies. It's so true isn't it? That's why we should do what we need to do today. There may be no tomorrow..”
An assignment/collaboration:
“This time around we are given this assignment to collaborate with a drawing done by one of the kids at the Children's Arts Center. I decided to take this particular drawing and do something with it. It is obviously a challenging assignment but totally a neat idea to contribute to the community. This is the drawing I received from the school. Really talented artist named Evelynn B. Ly! Remember her name everyone!”
