Saw these lovely paintings on a friend's blog today. Oil on canvas paintings that almost look like photographs. Purty.

There's a special exhibit on Tezuka Osamu at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. He created hundreds of manga titles and anime films, probably most well known internationally for the anime series Astro Boy. The exhibit is showing until early September. I highly recommend taking the time to see it even if you're not into manga comics. The exhibition highlights original drawings, paintings, and posters over the entire course of Tezuka Osamu's career. His work was so well executed, intricate, and evoked dynamic motion through pen and ink in amazing ways.

Also showing at the museum are wood block prints by Taiso Yoshitoshi dating back from Japan's Edo to Meiji eras. Really beautiful prints in movement and color with fine brush strokes and delicate details. The prints are light sensitive, so the first set is being shown now and a second set will be rotated into the space in July.

I put up the painting that's been sitting on my living room floor these last three months. I admit after the first month, it started to actually look good there. "Yea, I kinda like it...makes my place feel more...artsy." I'd reply when friends asked why it was still propped next to the hallway mirror.

It's above my bed now, replacing a black and white poster that I purchased in NYC years ago. There's something a little creepy about having my face hovering above me while I sleep. It doesn't help that the painting highlights my eyes, which turns into dark blobs when the lights are out. The first few nights, I had a hard time falling asleep because I kept checking to see if the eyes were moving. :P

For me. Made by his friend, Jenny Wehrt.