Tamie Okuyama from series: The Moon, oil on canvas 116.7×80.3cm 2011
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Tamie Okuyama was born in Jōetsu City, Japan. Perhaps as an omen to her future, on the day of her birth the city witnessed the heaviest snowstorm in 40 years. Her family moved to Tokyo when she was a toddler to live at her paternal grandfather’s estate but despite the large home and beautiful gardens, financial resources were very limited and the estate confining. She was unable to attend kindergarten and had no books, toys or even a single friend to play with, just her sister and brother. She learned at a very young age to commune with nature.
Once she entered school, she was almost invisible. Her teachers skipped over her when each of the children in class rose to read in rotation. One day, she leaped to her feet before she could be passed over and read aloud at the top of her lungs. Today, we would say she “found her voice” early in life.
It was her older sister who was deemed to be the talented artist and who was given special privileges and education. “My sister was very good at drawing and even as a child the newspapers often mentioned her as a ‘prodigy,’” Ms. Okuyama explains. Yet her sister abandoned the pursuit of art upon entering the College of Fine Arts with the highest grades. Tamie had planned to be an architect – she was a Gaudi aficionado and later studied art in Spain -- but was strongly discouraged from doing so, told there would be no room in Japanese society for a successful female architect. Instead she chose to study design at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where, partly from discomfort with praise and recognition, she almost sabotaged her very early academic achievements – top of her first class – by walking away.
Continue reading http://www.tamieokuyama.com/about/insight/
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Tamie Okuyama, "From the Moon."
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Tamie Okuyama from series: The Moon, oil on canvas 116.7×80.3cm 2011
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Tamie Okuyama — Flower Clouds (oil, canvas, laid on panel, 2011)
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Japanese Album Cover: The Players - Galaxy. Eiko Ishioka, Motoko Naruse, Tamie Okuyama. 1979
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Tamie OKUYAMA Memory-of-the-cloud
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Tamie Okuyama “From the Moon“
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Tamie OKUYAMA Memory of the cloud
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