Tapestry
Masa Harima
The primary player in Masa Harima’s A Day at the Circus looms big. A
pig-tailed school girl sporting Mary Janes, she holds a determined
balance on a tight rope wire. She makes good battle with a wily little
devil that is pulling on her balance bar. Although this acrobat could be
the end all of the scene, she shares the stage with an enormous cast.
Looking at the picture, it is easy to hear the trumpeting elephant
compete with the dutiful little circus band. A cracking whip, a roaring
lion, and a band of monkeys also punctuate the sounds of carnival.
Welcome to Popoon World, where Masa Harima is the master
marionette and orchestrates a sometimes unruly bunch of characters.
Popoon is Harima’s hybrid of the words pop and cartoon. Somewhere
between Manga and Hello Kitty, exists Harima’s collection of people
and creatures.
Born in Japan, Harima began drawing around the age of five. He drew
several hours every day. He drew on his own and without formal
training. He had every intention of becoming a Manga illustrator. “That
was my dream,” Harima says. Then he graduated from high school. He
thought about art and figured there were better ways to make more
money. Finding a suitcase for his artistic dreams, he packed them up
and stowed them away.
Through the first part of his adult life, Harima lived in Japan and hop
scotched through a series of jobs. “But I couldn’t find what I wanted,”
Harima confesses. At one of these jobs he met Lisa Bosques. Bosques
was an American teaching English in Kobe, Japan. The two fell in love.
Harima grabbed a suitcase once again, only this time he packed his
clothes and moved to the United States in 1999. He and Bosques got
married.
Harima and Bosques came to Washington while he still spoke very
little English. Harima explains it this way, “I had to start from zero; that
was really good.” Had he spoken fluent English, Harima says he would
have gone back to one of his old jobs. Instead, Harima and Bosques
opened a tea house in Ballard - Masalisa. They needed a business card.
A professional designer would have been too expensive at the time.
Taking action, Harima introduced himself to a MAC computer and to
Photoshop software, he began to draw again.
Harima has another motivation to draw. He and Bosques have a son
named Felix. Felix has inspired Harima to write and illustrate children
stories. In his books One Tiny Seed and Foo Foo and the Banana Tree,
he wanted to teach Felix, “to respect people.” It goes deeper than that
still. At one point, Harima began to think about death and what a person
leaves behind. He wanted to leave more than just things or a
photograph. He wanted to give Felix a piece of himself and his ideals.
Stories and pictures have provided the channel to that.
Like the best of illustrators, Harima’s work is multi-generational. His
Popoon World collection, prints drawn using Illustrator software, are
enjoying a popular exhibit at Fresh Flours in Phinney Ridge.
There are no bit players in Popoon World. Harima avoids creating
shadowy background figures and blurry crowds. A multitude of
innuendos and actions take place. Everyone is distinguishable and part
of the drama.
Harima explains the inspiration for his style this way: an epiphany
occurred while driving on the freeway. He and his wife were
experiencing one thing in their car, but he knew that the next car over
had a completely different drama happening. He describes it in a way
that makes one visualize a film sequence flashing through a series of
images. Each image is different, special, and indispensable to the
activities of this planet. Harima says, “People think, ‘ME,’ but it’s not
only, ‘ME.’” Harima knows that there is a collective of people in this
city. He draws the focus away from just one person and gives a wide
angle view to otherwise unnoticed and yet worthwhile affairs.
Showcasing this concept of inclusiveness are Train! Train!, Tricycle
Race de Paris and Congratulations. Tricycle Race jumbles a comical
hoard of would-be athletes that includes a blushing sumo wrestler, a
scuba diver and many others who are along for the ride. Congratulations
was birthed after attending a friend’s wedding. He wanted to show that
happiness means different things to different people.
Humor is another essential element in his work. Harima went through a
season of laboring over art and growing tired in the making of it. He
questioned the weariness. He knew it came from pursuing genres that
really were not his style. He realized he could only be himself. He puts
it this way, “I want to put my personality in the art.” Now he gives
himself the freedom to infuse comedy into work.
He says to pursue only art is not the end all. He believes everything is
connected and life should be balanced. He concludes that it is essential
to respect others, “We don’t live on our own. We live always together.”
Art is merely a part of this whole.
All pictures used by permission of Three Tree Tea Company. You can
see more of Harima’s work at www.popoonworld.com. Harima’s work
will be on display at Fresh Flours, 6015 Phinney Ave.N, Seattle,
through the rest of May. It includes several great pieces not yet on the
website.
By - Catalyst of the Arts: Tapestry Belltown
