Margaret Ouchida Art: Gallery

The Battle

Making this piece was a wonderful outlet for both creative expansion and my appreciation of certain aspects of my Japanese heritage. An adaptation of Momotaro, a Japanese folk tale about a heroic young boy and his unlikely band of warriors, the main character in my piece is instead, a toad.

Choosing to do an ocean storm scene afforded me the opportunity to implement moving water, a built-in speaker with thunder effects, and lightning flashes across the sky. The cultural and time setting allowed me to work with beautiful sheets of origami paper in creating intricate costumes.

My dad wrote the characters on the banner, which translated, says "Jehovah Nissi" or "the Lord is my banner". When the oni (demons) see the standard flying, they are struck with fear for they know their defeat is imminent.

The Battle, 18.5" x 17.5" x 12"

The Battle, close-up

The Wedding

This is another illustration from the story I have written, The Treasure Hunt. This mixed media piece includes the use of glass, paper, water color, artist markers, LEDs and fiber optics. The fiber optics (hard to discern in photo) light up in random fashion to simulate hovering fireflies. My mom helped me with this piece by drilling holes through the glass "pond" for the water lilies and fireflies.

The Wedding, 17.5" x 14.5" x 10"

Burying Treasure

This is the title page illustration for a story I have written called The Treasure Hunt. One of my toads kindly served as reference. The mixed media include artist markers, colored pencil, water color, flocking, and LEDs. The tiny lights in the lantern blink on and off in random fashion, simulating a fire fly lantern.

Burying Treasure, 14.5" x 13.5" x 9"

Smitten

Smitten is a romantic, comic adaptation of the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, done in a series of 5 boxes. The mixed media include water color, colored pencil, and the use of LEDs. The colored LEDs in the final box randomly fade on and off to simulate exploding fireworks.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. . .