New art and Fun at Gen Con

 Just finished up Gen Con 2010 and as always such a fun show. I get a chance to see old friends and meet new ones. The Art show this year was wonderful with such amazing and inspiring art to have gazed upon.

I wanted to post this new art that I finished up right before the show. The piece is called "Judgement" and it is part of a new series I am working on. It is painted in oils and is 22 x 30.

Republic of Rome Characters

Here are some of the small paintings I did for a board game called Republic of Rome, published by Valley Games.

working away

Well I have been a tad quiet, not do to laziness but to an assigment. When I get the go ahead and the company uses the images, I will post them here.

On another note, the art book being produce by Barnes and Nobles and Sterling Publishing, looks to finally be on track and we are keeping our fingers crossed for an October release. The book is titled " The Book of Knights" and has all kinds of knight history and fiction included. It's mainly a reason to paint knights. Allen Williams is the writer and lead on the book with myself, Donato and Ruth Thompson contributing art. It will be a hardbound coffee table kind of book.

Professor Okazaki painting commissions

Here are 2 private commissions of Professor Okazaki. Professor Seishiro Okazaki is the founder of Dan Zan Ryu Jusjitsu and the "Okazaki Restorative Massage"

Both are done only using white, burnt umber, yellow oxide and mars black paint on canvas.

Below is a history of "Henry" Okazaki.

Professor H. Seishiro Okazaki was born January 28, 1890 in the town of Kakeda, Fukushima prefecture of Japan. His father was Hanyeimon Okazaki, and his mother was Fuka Suenaga. In 1906, Professor Okazaki moved from Japan to the big island of Hawaii and settled in Hilo. In 1909 he was examined by a doctor who diagnosed him with incurable tuberculosis.
In 1910, Professor Okazaki started training with Master Yosimatsu (Kichimatsu) Tanaka at his Shinyu Kai Dojo in Hilo. In Professor Okazaki's own words " he started to practice Jujitsu in earnest and in defiance of death".

Whether or not it was due to to his frantic devotion to Jujitsu, Professor Okazaki's tuberculosis healed and he developed a strong iron like body. He believed that he owed his life to Jujitsu and devoted the rest of his life to teaching and promoting the art.

While in Hilo, Professor Okazaki mastered various Jujitsu techniques being taught at the Namba-Yoshin-Ryu, Kodokan Judo, Iwaga-Ryu, and Kosogahe-Ryu schools. He then combined these systems with karate techniques from the Ryukyu Island (Okinawa) and the knife fighting techniques of the Philippines to form Danzan-Ryu in the Hawaiian School of Jujitsu.
According to the late Professor Sig Kufferath, one of Professor Okazaki's most influential instructors, Wo Chung, called Hawaii "Danzan", as did most Chinese people at that time, so Professor Okazaki dedicated part of the system to Chung's memory. Chung taught Professor Okazaki Mushi-Jutsu, which is the art of boxing with intent to kill, as Professor Okazaki translated it.

In 1917, he also studied the Hawaiian secret killing art of Lua under the tutelage of David Kainhee, a native Hawaiian. The training took place in the district of Puna, on the island of Hawaii. He also studied western boxing and wrestling and learned dirk throwing from a Spaniard. Professor Okazaki incorporated all of these arts into his system.

In September 1922, a Heavyweight American boxer by the name of K. O. Morris visited the islands and began to challenge Judo and other martial arts. His claim was his boxing was far superior to any Japanese martial art. When the challenge was answered in the Hilo area by several Japanese martial artists, they were defeated by Morris, causing them to lose face. According to the late Professor Sig Kufferath, Professor Okazaki then challenged Morris to a match. Professor Okazaki reportedly suffered a broken nose in the first round. He then retaliated with a reverse arm lock which broke Morris's arm and causing him to faint from the excessive pain. Professor Okazaki later said, "I enhanced the reputation of Japanese Jujitsu by defeating him with much splendor". Professor Okazaki received a gold watch from the Japanese community for restoring their honor.

In September 1924, Professor Okazaki returned temporarily to Japan. He traveled extensively, visiting more than fifty dojos scattered between Morioka City in the north and Kagoshima in the south. He mastered some six hundred seventy five techniques of Jujitsu, all the while improving his own Danzan Ryu. During this time also he worked out at the famous Kodokan and received a Black Belt in Judo directly from Dr. Jigaro Kano, the founder of Judo. He then returned from Japan in February of 1925 and started to teach his Jujitsu style on the island of Maui.
In 1929, Professor Okazaki moved to Honolulu on the island of Oahu. It was here that he opened the "Okazaki Seifukujutsu", or "Okazaki Adjustment and Restoration Clinic", which would eventually be called the "Nikko Restoration Sanitarium". At the same time he also opened his Kodenkan Dojo to teach his Danzan Ryu Jujitsu while still testing and improving his Jujitsu system.

Professor Okazaki was one of the first teachers to break from tradition and teach Japanese martial arts to the non-Japanese. Professor Okazaki was ostracized by other Japanese for doing this. Professor Okazaki firmly believed that everyone should have the opportunity to learn the art of Jujitsu, regardless of their ethnic heritage.

His first class in Honolulu consisted of six students: his son, Hachiro, Kiyoshi Kawashima, Benjamin Marks, George Harbottle, William Simao, and Y. S. Kim. In 1932, Richard Rickerts, Curly Friedman, Charles Wagner, Harold McLean, Bob Glover and Tantro Muggey enrolled in the Kodenkan. In 1936, they graduated with instructor diplomas. Professor Okazaki also formed an organization originally called the "American Jujitsu Guild", and later renamed the "American Jujitsu Institute" AJI.

Professor Okazaki felt that his Jujitsu system was now the most comprehensive form of Jujitsu because it took what he believed were the optimum approaches to self defense and combined them into one school. Professor Okazaki was also an avid promoter of sport Judo and Sumo competition in Hawaii.

Then on December 7, 1941, forces from the Imperial Japanese Navy executed a surprise, unprovoked attack on the U. S. Military bases on Oahu, thus entering the United States into war against Japan. What followed for island residents was martial law where many Japanese were arrested and detained at the military base on Sand Island.

Many reports have indicated that Professor Okazaki was detained as well. Recent official documents released by the United States Department of Justice under the "Freedom of Information Act" do not show that Professor Okazaki was detained. Eyewitnesses such as Steven J. Byzek, a Black Belt under Professor Okazaki, says that Professor Okazaki was taken in for questioning by authorities, but that he was not detained.

Probably the best account comes from the children of Professor Okazaki. His youngest daughter, Imi (now Professor Imi Okazaki-Mullins) recalls that she visited him on at least two occasions in a prison camp. This was a clear recollection of hers since she had to make a long bus trip to get to the location. Some accounts of this time do indicate that the "Kodenkan Dojo" was closed for a time, but was later reopened.

Ironically, it was during World War II that Professor Okazaki help to develop the United States Army's field manual on "hand-to-hand" combat and also taught many U. S. servicemen the art of Danzan Ryu Jujitsu.

It should be noted that Professor Okazaki was extremely proud of his acquired American citizenship and openly displayed the American flag in his dojo, and in all official dojo photographs of him. This point was heavily emphasized by his daughter, Professor Imi Okazkai-Mullins.
One of Professor Okazaki's dreams was to have a Danzan Ryu school in every state in the union, which is becoming a reality as documented by the extensive Danzan Ryu website today.

In July of 1948, Professor Okazaki suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. This severely reduced his teaching ability and much of the teaching then was done by the instructors he had trained. His students would come and apply his own restorative massage techniques on him. Slowly, the paralyzed side of his was brought back to vitality. Although he was able to return to teaching, his disability continued to haunt him.

A second stroke occurred in September of 1950 that put him in the hospital, and another massive stroke in June of 1951, which left him totally disabled, and then finally at 4:00pm on July, 12, 1951, Professor Henry Seishiro Okazaki died from the effects of the third stroke.

Starting several new paintings this week.

This week I will be pushing forward and starting several new paintings. I have finally let my mind wander and settle on subject matter. Always a hard thing for me for there is alot I like to do. I will post the process here. This will include rough sketches, sketches and stages of the work. I have stocked up on supplies and my favorite paints, "Old Holland Oils".

On a music note, I am considering joining a modern jazz/fusion band as a bassist. Very excited about this as well...

Lost in Madrid

For the Magic Event in Madrid,I had to get up early and get to the event site in order to set up my table with my art and prints which were resting in the black suitcases. From my previous days of wandering the downtown streets, I felt pretty sure I knew how to get around, but to be sure I asked the hotel receptionist where Casa de Campo might be. In broken english, (cause my high school Spanish education is lost somewhere deep deep back in some dark corner of my brain), he said pretty much just go out turn right and walk a good ways maybe 20 minutes. This seemed right cause I also had the "lucky" tourist map you pick up at the airport that had all the cool buildings and things of importance marked on it. This map led me safely to all the places I wanted to see. Well, on this map it looked like the hotel clerk was right, I was to just walk out, turn right and go down the street aways. The map showed the river to the right of the road and the event site, according to the map, was not across this river. This I noted.

With my bags (with wheels) in tow, I left the hotel and headed right down the sidewalk in the cool gray misty morning. Keeping the river to my right I set off. The luggage (50lbs a piece) rolled behind me with click tacking wheels. The streets and sidewalks at this hour were fairly empty, so it was nice and peaceful as I made my way further down the road. About 45 minutes later I still found no road that I was to vear on to that the site was on. I began to wonder. I kept walking not sure If I should go back or keep going, maybe it was just up ahead a little more.
No... it wasn't. Now I began to worry cause its 9am. and the event starts at 10 am.

As I stood there on the damp sidewalk perplexed as to what to do.... an elderly man came walking down the sidewalk. "Pardon!!" I blurted... the elderly man in the brown rain coat and hat stopped and looked up at me. " Donde es Casa de Campo" I muttered. He looked at me for a second and fired off some Spanish while looking around perplexed as I was. We both stood there for a second, until he pointed at me and the sidewalk with his hand held up palm facing me. I took this as to wait, so I did. He then made his way across the 5 lane road to the other side where another man was walking. They began to talk and their hands and arms were moving and pointing. They were pointing back the way I came. After a few minutes the elderly man made his way back across the street to me and through osmosis I gathered that I needed to go back to where I started and go right and cross the river and head that way.

I stood there a moment probably looking like a sad silly tourist. It was then that the elderly man
reached out his arms and gave me a big hug and patted me on the back and headed off as I said "Mucho Gracias!!!"

I made my way back to the hotel with haste, it was now 9:30. I crossed the river and headed up the street. after about 15 minuted I came across a sign that said Casa de Campo, and my heart was elated! Walking faster I make it to the ..... compound. I thought this was a building, but no it was a big area with a park lots of restaurants, buildings conference halls, some kind of stadium thing and other various business buildings. How was I to find the correct building? I began my aimless wandering praying for a sign or clue. 20 minutes pass no clue. I saw a lady walking her dog and asked "Donde es Casa de Campo", she looked at me and motioned her arms all around.
"Hmmmm..." I tried to tell her I was looking for a Magic the Gathering card tournament.. she waved and walked on. At this time I began to wonder how was I to find this place. I had no cell phone or way to contact any event staff, so I continued wandering. It was then I spied a young man with a backpack (this is a good sign when looking for gamers).. I clik clak up to him and say
"Pardon!!!" he turns and looks at me and says "Mark Poole!!!!!". At this moment my heart beats with happiness for I know I have arrived to the event. He leads me up the road a bit more and there it was... my destination!
Later I learned if I would have got on the subway right outside my hotel it would have taken me there in under 5 minutes.

Madrid Artist Guest for Magic Event

Just got back from a trip as an artist guest from Madrid, Spain. I would like to start off by saying the fans in Spain were crazy fun to be around and that the show was a blast and a huge success. It broke all previous attendance records for a Magic Grand Prix Event. Needless to say it was packed and my fingers that held the sharpie pens for autograph signings, went numb by the end of the event. I felt bad that the line for waiting was 2 to 3 hours long during the 2 days, but everyone was very nice to me and really made me feel honored and very much welcome. I would again like to thank everyone who attended and to the wonderful Magic team who ran the event.

Days before the show I got to wander the streets of downtown Madrid. One of the highlights was the Prado Museum, which houses such artist as: Bosch, Durer, Greco, Goya,Rubens, Velazquez and Tiepolo. Wonderful museum to visit, I believe I spent five plus hours transfixed by people and paint of the past.