For this response to David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous (page 73-91), I decided to create something that related to what I read on page 79; "Yet each of these communicative arrays--these "dances," "songs," and gestures, both vocal and visual--may be said to remain within the sphere of felt, bodily expression."
I decided to play with charcoal for the 30-minute response (definitely was not enough time for the fine tuning in the physical drawing but whatever) which I hadn't done in a while like this. Playing with different mediums is something I love doing so you will continue to see that with my responses.
Anyways, I decided to do a charcoal portrait of my favorite singer, Kyo (real name Nishimura Tooru) because he is a part of a well-known Japanese metal band that has been together since (and is still releasing awesome music and going on tour) 1997, Dir En Grey. The reason for their success is their controversial style, lyrics (concepts), and music videos that tackle Japanese issues and taboo. Kyo being a very talented artist and writer (he also writes the lyrics as well as releasing two poem books) also helps. Not only has the band been successful in Japan, but it is successful in other countries, including USA. Many people listen to their music even though there is a language barrier because something draws them to the music. It's dynamic and beautiful. This fact does lead to people looking up the translation of the songs' lyrics and then they fall more in love with the music as they can relate to it even more. Kasumi is a very beautiful song for one and it becomes better when you know what they are saying.
Dir En Grey has successfully gone through the many stages of metal, including cross-dressing, dark costumes, ect. 10/10 Kyo could really look fantastic in anything but that's just my opinion haha.
Anyways, the charcoal drawing is of him and I did pencil in the Japanese lyrics to Kodou which is one of their newer songs that is really beautiful and relates a lot to the darker side of life. I didn't like how it turned out in that short amount of time, so I took it upon myself to spare like five minutes more to edit it into a collage with the words in Japanese and then in English.
