Day 29 Salt factory and "twin rocks" Shrine

Today me, Ayako-san, Chihiro-san and Bissan are going to visit the Salt factory Kobo Tottan and twin rock shrine.
Kobo Tottan is located on land’s edge of the Itoshima Peninsula near Keya Beach. It's quite amazing that fact that they only use sun, wind, and firewood to obtain mineral-rich salt from seawater. Natural sea salt production in Japan is an ancient art form that has been modified for many centuries.

Firewood with seawater

Kobo Tottan

Not far from Kobo Tottan, we went to Keya Beach. It was voted as one of the nation's 100 Best Beaches by Japan's Ministry of Environment.

Keya beach

Crystal clear water

Slurpy Sashimi for lunch

Onsen near the restaurant

Futamigaura is located in Kamiura Town in Saiki. It's actually known as Shinto shrine. Just behind the shrine gate, there are twin rocks that sits nicely in the middle of the water. It has a fantastic sunset view that always attract visitors to come enjoy nice scenery.

Wish granted for those who can land a stone at the middle of the pillar gate

Ayako-san, Chihiro-san and Bissan enjoying the beach sight

Day 28 Presentation day

The awaited day has come, this is going to be my first exhibition and presentation as an artist, i am so thrilled! The exhibition starts at 5 pm, people starting to come one by one to Studio Kura for the exhibition. Before i started the presentation, i gave a little speech about who i am, and i came here as a residency award program from 3Dsense Media School. I explained to the people about what kind of artwork that i will showcase and thank every single one of them for coming and making this exhibition possible. So as i opened the exhibition room door, i invited the audience to come inside and see the exhibition.

My sketches and blueprint

I explained to them about how i begin with research and observation, by looking for reference as many as possible. Before or during collecting resources, we can start do some sketching for the design. After we have enough sketches, i constantly re-draw the designs by combining elements that we liked from the previous sketches. After finalize the design, i made the blueprint in actual scale for more accurate result in size. I recorded all of the processes from the modeling stage, baking, assembling armature and final coloring and project it at the back of the sculpture. 

Presenting about the Samurai Karasu sculpture

After done presenting the Samurai Karasu sculpture, now it comes to Wayang show demonstration with my 2 puppets..this where it's getting fun! 

Demonstrating Gunungan puppet

Actual Wayang show played on the background with my puppets at the front

People starts to come and try play with the puppets

After the exhibition

Day 27 Gunungan Papercutting

The second artwork that i made is for my exhibition was also from Wayang shadow puppet. It's called Gunungan which in Javanese language means "like a mountain". On Wayang show, Gunungan are commonly used at the opening of the show, to mark a beginning of a new chapter and for the closing part.

If you looked at Gunungan, you might noticed there are many elements inside it, but all of them are not just for fancy artwork or just for decorating purpose, but Gunungan actually represents a lot of philosophy. 

The conical Gunungan or mountain shape here symbolizes human life, the higher our knowledge and age, we should be more focus. In short, human life is to go to the above (God).
The Gate and two guards, symbolize the human heart which has 2 things: good and bad. Shields and Mace that they hold in represents natural guardian of dark and light.

The Trees that grow throughout the body of Gunungan symbolizes developments, are human's behavior, as they must grow dynamically and coloring the world and the universe. The tree also symbolizes a shelter and protection to the people living in this world that has given by God.
Bird symbolizes that man must make the world and universe become beautiful, in the spiritual and material.

Bull symbolizes man must be strong, and tough.
Ape symbolizes human should be able to choose the good-bad, like a smart ape pick good fruit.
Tiger symbolizes man must be a leader for themselves, so he can act wisely and he must able to control appetite, so that can be useful for yourself, others and the universe.

Picture a giant head in the middle symbolizes man in everyday life have greed, evil as Devil.
Figure of demons symbolizes that life in this world many temptations, trials, challenges and dangers that may threaten the safety of people any time.
Joglo house image symbolizes a home or a country in which has a safe, peaceful, and happiness.

Gunungan in Wayang puppet show

After read through more about the making process and the philosophies of Wayang, i'm beginning to understand and more appreciative about it, not only just because this beautifully handmade puppets needs a good skills of craftsmanship, but it also tells about philosophy of life. For my Gunungan artwork, i tried to re-interpret the same visual elements from the Javanese Wayang version, into visual elements that Japanese people are more familiar so they can able to identify and understand it much easier. 

 The Nippon version of Gunungan papercutting

The final result of my Gunungan

While i was finishing my papercutting, Hiro's father came to Studio and invited me and Bissan for dinner at his house. We had a great time sharing lots of stories about our own country. The food was simply perfect, especially the Bonito and Sashimi, love them!

Hiro's father can sing very well!

Day 26 Gatotkaca Puppet

Gatotkaca in theatre show

The term 'Wayang' is the Javanese word for shadow, or bayangan in Indonesian. In modern daily Javanese and Indonesian vocabulary, Wayang is most often associated with the puppet itself or the whole puppet theater performance.
Gatotkaca is based on a character in the Mahabharata story, which is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. As Hinduism influence was brought to Indonesia as early as first century, Hindu epic tales has blend and grow along with Javanese culture which later become the birth of Wayang.
Gatotkaca is the son of Bima and the giantess Hidimbi, he is half raksasa (giant) and has many magical powers such as the ability to fly, that made him an important fighter in the Kurukshetra war, the climax of the epic.

Indonesia's Gatotkaca Wayang Puppet

Based on the reference, i made the Gatotkaca character to have an anime style hoping that it would be easier for people to familiar with. I wanted to make it functioned just as the actual puppet from Indonesia was, so the audience later can try out by them self how it feels to "animate" the puppet.

Gatotkaca in Katagana

Now left with one more artwork for the exhibition, now i can start decorating the exhibition room for my presentation which is 2 days left. After done with setting up lighting for the sculpture, i start to put all the other artworks inside and do a rehearsal check for the show.

My 3Dsense Modeling Reel

A quick movie break :D

Day 25 Assembling the Final Parts

It's almost done! It's looking way much better now, especially after i added more detailed colors and some shiny silver ribbons at the joints to have more mechanical kind of look. As for the finishing touch, i put on some small parts such as armor scales, katana blade, shoulder pads, knee cover, throat guard, utility belt, power converter and beam core, and ankle joints.

I'm ready to hit the spotlight!

Now i left with 3 days before the exhibition. I think i still got time to do extra artworks then i can start to prepare the room for the exhibition. After thinking and consulting around about what kind of artwork that might be interesting to be showcase, i decided to make a Gatotkaca 2D puppet, and a Gunungan taken from Wayang tale, which is a traditional art from Indonesia.

As the day seems starting to get dark outside the studio. Hiro-san suddenly popped out a question to me and Bissan,"do you want to go hot spring or ONCRI Onsen at Furuyu?". Horay..thanks Hiro-san, just about time when i needed a break!

ONCRI onsen

ONCRI onsen is located in the famous Furuyu Hot Spring area of Saga Prefecture, which took about 45 minutes drive from Kura ( believe me it is worth it! ). It has many types of indoor and outdoor hot-spring baths. At indoor, there was an area for us to lie back and water jets can massage your back. On the outside, they have pool with falling water streams and several steam boxes where you relax enjoy the outside view while warming up your body, what an awesome relaxing place!

Three Happy faces

Day 23 & 24 Coloring the Sculpture

After the done with the sculpting now comes the fun part of it, which is the coloring! I have done sculpting before just as a hobby, but this is my first time to sculpt in quite big size clay, and add some colors on it. If we look at crows, the color scheme is just normally dark or black, which i think might not interesting enough to showcase as a sculpture, plus black colors are usually harder to see especially if you put things like many details, which might just end as a waste. I used acrylic paint with combination color of gold, grey, light grey, brown and white. 

Most of the Samurai armors are dominated in bright colors, and they used scary faces because at the time there was no attempt at camouflage; the intention was to frighten, not hide.
The main colors for the Samurai armor are grey and gold, grey is the lighter version color for crows, which is also stands for steel / iron armory. While gold color defines eternity, courage and majesty.