About The Artist

My photo
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Hello! I am a fine arts painter, with a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My primary painting medium is oil and alkyd, and mostly I work in a representational style. My greatest challenge as a painter is to capture the effect of light; and my greatest joy as a painter is to accomplish that. Many thanks to those readers who have been following this blog since Day 1 (May 19, 2008). To those who are visiting for the first time today...Welcome, and thanks for dropping by!

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Finished: "Kimono for Modern Girl"

Kimono  modern girl painting adamec
"Kimono for Modern Girl", 2020, oil, collage on stretched canvas, 36" x 36"

While the Jazz Age was flourishing in America during the 1920’s, the “moga” (short for modan gaaru) or “modern girl” emerged in the urban areas of Japan. 

Inspired by the American Flapper, the modern girl cast off her traditional kimono and morĂ©s, adopting Western-style fashions, makeup, and hairstyles, while indulging in a social nightlife of dancing, smoking, drinking sake, and riding in cars with “mobos” (modern boys), much to horror of her traditional Japanese parents.

In this painting, I've relaxed the rigidity of the traditional kimono, and "fleshed" it out with a sense of the female form. The Japanese writing in the upper left hand corner is the title of a popular novel of the day,  "Naomi (A Fool's Love)", about a man's obsession to marry a "modern girl"and encourage her Westernized ways. 

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Text and Image ©2020 Carol L Adamec. All rights reserved.