Under the Wave of Kanagawa
May I share a wee personal tale? One day, Whitney Robinson contacted me and asked me to paint him a set of glasses. Yes, that Whitney, the arbiter of good taste and undisputed style. Charming, debonair, with a razor sharp wit and oodles of panache dripping from every pore. He described to me different rooms, images, and places that he was enthralled with that would inspire the glasses I was yet to paint. No small task. Thankfully, I too, was very inspired by those places, movies, and scenes. I immediately was drawn to an overarching theme of moodiness in conjunction with an elegance, and, old school glamour juxtaposed by a very modern graphic aesthetic.
At the time of Whitney’s request he had just recently spent time in Hawaii surfing. All these completely isolated elements with no other commonality except the owner of these glasses came together in an epiphany. I never gave it another thought. I had to paint these glasses for him. Fortunately, he agreed.
I started with the first glass which is a rendition of Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock carving ‘Under the Wave of Kanagawa’ which then led me to a lesser known Japanese artist Mori Yuzan and his extraordinarily powerful work for the final three glasses. These very modern, graphic, moody images that were carved in the 1830’s were the inspiration that encapsulated everything I was trying to accomplish.
I hand painted each glass in a reverse glass technique so you would see a similar image from the inside of the glass. Each bottom of each glass is also reverse glass painted and all the glasses are encrusted with Swarovski crystals.
This is a labor of love. All of my glasses are. I am so thankful for the commission and love being inspired by such amazing people. There’s always a story behind every single glass. Hand painted and one of a kind.
