ART INSPIRES RENEWAL NOW

IKEDA MANABU

When catastrophe strikes, it is often artists that lead humanity with renewal of both form and spirit.

Japanese artist Ikeda Manabu was moved by the epic 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan to create a work of monumental proportions, entitled “Rebirth.”

It took him 2 years to gather his thoughts and ideas before he began the work in July of 2013 in the basement studio of Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin.

Manabu worked for 10 hours a day for over 3.5 years, creating his masterpiece, which he just recently unveiled at the museum.

Measuring a whopping 13’ x 10,’ it just might be the largest pen & ink drawing ever made. It is also one of the most detailed. 

The main visual theme in Rebirth is symbolized by a tree that rises up from the debris of the tsunami as its massive waves are crashing. Every square inch of this canvas, however, is filled with tiny intricately drawn images of people, plants, objects, and animals, struggling to survive.

Manabu creates beautiful chaos to evoke the chaos dished out by the universe. Man and nature clash and crash in both expected and unexpected ways.

Manabu begins his drawings with broad pencil sketches, then works them with pen and ink, using various forms of cross-hatching and brushwork. He works with a trademark combination of a traditional Japanese painting style and an ultra-detailed surrealism.

“My goal is to faithfully express my view of the world in my composition, but I don’t intentionally depict detailed images,” Manabu says.  

“Because I see details when I observe things, rather than the whole, I find pen and ink to be the best tools to express how I see them.”

An added twist to the story of “Rebirth” occurred when Manabu injured his shoulder and dominant hand in a skiing accident. Not wanting to skip a beat or waste any time, Manabu learned how to draw the intense detail just as well with his other hand.

“Imagination is the beginning of all actions, and so if each one of us can only try to imagine deeply and vividly, surely a great power for change will be born from that.” — Ikeda Manabu

Find more of Manabu's work on his website.

Also see The Hope Filled Blossom.

Check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
2. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
3. Image: by Clayton Adams. Ikeda Manabu at work on “Rebirth” pen and ink drawing. Courtesy of Chazen Museum of Art.
4. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
5. Image: “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu. Courtesy of Chazen Museum of Art.
6. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
7. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
8. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
9. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
10. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
11. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.
12. Image: by Clayton Adams. Ikeda Manabu at work on “Rebirth” pen and ink drawing. Courtesy of Chazen Museum of Art.
13. Image: by BN App - Download now!
14. Image: Detail of “Rebirth.” Pen & ink drawing by Ikeda Manabu.