Coloring Pages - 2020

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy and happy the last few months! The other day, I finally went to the beach after months of not going. It certainly was a beautiful day with lots of vitamin D. Isn’t it so magical the moment you dive under the oncoming set of waves, the water shaves a few pounds off of your anxiety?

Now, let’s talk about the coloring pages!

“When will you make a coloring book for adults/kids?” has always been one of the FAQ I receive. I am very happy to announce that I have my first two pages and would love to share them with you all! Please click the .pdf files for both “DIVE” and “Spam Spams” :) They are both in A4 printing paper size format so just click on their names for a simple print out!

”DIVE” is a piece I specifically made for this purpose. I have my own implication as to what it means to me, but I am curious as to what you will make out of it after the coloring process.

”SPAM SPAMS” is a piece I’ve already colored back in 2018. But I thought it’ll be a fun piece to make into a coloring page. I think it resonates so much with everything that went down the past few months, still ongoing for some of us. Simply put, spam musubi is one’s home.

I hope you’ll enjoy the coloring pages, and please share with me how you chose to color them by tagging me on Instagram (@KGOTOART/#Krisgoto) - I’m so curious to see them!　Lastly, there is a little coloring contest where the winners from each piece will receive a free matted giclee print of their choice! For more information, please visit my Instagram (@KGOTOART)!

If you wish to check out the Japanese article by ALLHAWAII (Hawaii Tourism Japan) where the coloring pages were first initiated and promoted on the 24th, please check them out and you can print out the coloring pages from there as well!

日本の皆様。この度、ALLHAWAII様（ハワイ州観光局）のおうちでHAWAI I企画を通して、塗り絵を二枚描きおろさせて頂きました！このリンクから、塗り絵を印刷出来ます。皆様がどのように色を塗るのかにものすごく興味津々な私ですが、完成しましたらぜひインスタなどでタグ付けしてお知らせください〜！（＠KGOTOART・＃クリスゴトウ・＃KRISGOTO）

Lots of warm cozy thoughts your way!
Kris

"SEQUENCE" - Feb 2020

Hi Everyone! Let me introduce you to somebody today.

This is “Sequence” - a 23.5” by 28.5” pen on paper original. I worked on this piece in mid-February 2020. She was exhibited at the Nano Gallery inside the Honolulu Museum of Art School in February and March. However, given the situation we are all in right now, I am afraid the gallery is closed until further notice and the exhibit was cut short. I’m sorry if you’ve missed the chance to see this exhibit.

For those who are familiar with my works for the past decade, I hope you and I share this sense of nostalgia toward this piece. I normally discourage myself from repeating the same pattern and reusing the older materials for the sake of reusing them because I feel that it prohibits growth and discovery. Unless, it’s pattern and material that is still ongoing. But, with this particular piece, I wanted to revisit them to see where my current mentality would take them now. The monochromic leaves, background and disfigured human body. (Although I still do work on disfigured human forms and etc in my own time but they never see the light of day and no one knows about them. This is for another post later on.)

I quickly discovered that - a) I no longer have the patience for this (the leaves) anymore (like, why, me ten years ago, WHY?) and b) I had become better friends with the concept of negative spacing. I know for certain that me ten years ago would try to fill in all that negative space with the leaves and the black background even though that would mean working on this piece 24 hours a day (literally) for the next 5 days and until my right hand melts off of my wrist and my face start twitching from too much coffee and energy drinks. Obviously, I care more about my physical well-being now that I am older. I also discovered that revisiting your older works are like reading back to your diary you religiously kept until you graduate high school. So in conclusion, I’d like to take back my previous statement. This piece had the opposite effect - it brought growth and discovery. It served as a reminder of my foundation and of a new perspective through an old pair of glasses! My brain is itching to work on new pieces with this new revelation- I would do things so differently now.

“Sequence” was inspired by the never- ending and symbiotic cycle of life. That is, life in the natural and organic sense. I have two scenarios for the main character(s) in this piece.

Scenario 1 - The lady decided to take a quick nap in the forest, only to discover later that she had become a fertilizer to fuel the lives around her. The pair of hands at the top right corner is another napper that had succumbed to her fate earlier that day. How fast they are absorbed! The circular pebbles are the agents that is produced by the O’HIA LEHUA to absorb and convert the human forms into food. The new growth always sprouts from the human uterus. In this scenario, the man is the fertilizer but unintentionally.

Scenario 2 - The lady voluntarily became the fertilizer to revitalize the natural world. It was simply her turn to be one. Everyone has their turn.

What scenarios do you have for “Sequence”?

Kris

The Art of Letting Go

First of, thank you to many of you who came out to see this piece at my last solo exhibit at the Greenroom Gallery Hawaii inside Ala Moana Centre on Dec. 14th! It was lovely meeting you and getting to know you all and seeing familiar faces as well!

Now, let’s take a brief moment to talk about the inspiration on this piece, “The Art of Letting Go”

Think of all the things that you hold onto mentally. Things that you know deep inside that you should have moved on from, or you want to move on from. It can be anything. It can be that one time you accidentally dropped a bottle of red wine and it shattered all over your friend’s new carpet. That one time you said the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong people (if you know me, this happens way too often). That one person that told you you cannot do it. That one time you doubted yourself that you can. That one time someone hurt you, you hurt someone. And that one time they left you of you left them.

The art of letting go is something I have had the hardest time understanding. If something upsets me, oh trust me, I WILL remember that for like, forever. But I was taught that holding on to such negativity was capping my own personal growth and it’s sometimes important to just walk away.

So I am letting go. Thank you for the lessons learned. Thank you for teaching me the importance of setting boundaries. I forgive you. I forgive myself.

I have a strong feeling that year 2020 will bring about some exciting news. I am grateful for all of you for sharing this roller coaster ride with me. Things are about to get pretty wild!

See you in the new year 2020 :)
Kris

Strawberry Thoughts - Inspiration

I think one of my favorite thing to do when I am on the beach is to lay down on my tummy right where the waters flow thinly up and down the sand. It’s there when strawberry thoughts start pouring out of my brain. They are sweet, ripe and occasionally sour and tasteless. Share them with a friend and have a bite of theirs too. This is the inspiration of this piece - “Strawberry Thoughts” - debuted in Santa Cruz 2019. Hope my strawberries are ripe by this weekend.

How are you? Hope you’re having a wonderful week.

Kris