Showing posts with label animal spirits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal spirits. Show all posts

Friday, September 6, 2013

Miyazaki-sama (aka "Japan's Walt Disney") Announces Retirement

Miyazaki made out of his movies - portrait by ~C3nmt
Although Miyazaki is indeed known as "Japan's Walt Disney" for reasons of his animated features and whimsical, fantastical and family-friendly storytelling, he is very much his own person and visionary. The news of his retirement from feature films is, though, as big a deal worldwide as if Walt were alive and announced a similar retirement of his own.

As such, I don't really know how best to present this news:
  • sadness that Hayao Miyazaki is retiring from feature film directing?
  • hopefulness for other projects he will no have time to give his attention to?
  • gladness that he'll be able to enjoy some of his retirement and family without the pressure of giant films?
  • gratefulness that I was as aware of his Mastery as I was and took note of the films he made after Princess Mononoke onward?
  • honored to have shared the planet with such a visionary of both filmmaking and fairy/folk tales?
I have to choose all of the above. And I would add that I feel we are privileged in this age to have the technology we do to share his work worldwide right now. (Remember when we had to wait 7 years for a Disney feature to come back to the theater to see it?!)
Totoro with his Dad

Update: Hayao Miyazaki's Official Retirement Press Conference to be Streamed in English (as well as Japanese) today, Friday Sep 6th, at 2pm JST, on Niconico HERE.


Here's a summary of the initial brief announcement by Studio Ghibli head, Hoshino, on Sunday September 1st, 2013:
✒ ✒ ✒  ✒ (click the "Read more" link below this line) ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ 

Monday, August 16, 2010

Wolf Women, Deer Girls & Other Animal Spirits Brought to... Hair

What if Goldilocks and the bears weren't as far apart as we first thought?

Being that Rapunzel is so the 'fairy tale girl of the moment' I thought it'd be interesting to look up some art people have made with hair. I found one stunning picture of an 'animal hair hat' that instantly brought to mind tales and legends of women in animal form: fox women (some of my favorite dangerous fairy tale creatures), deer girls, were women of all types, shapeshifters and other 'Beastly Brides'.
It also provoked other questions like the one I wrote above: we know about shapeshifting in tales, they're prolific and we have many wonderful resources available discussing shapeshifting tales, BUT what if the traditional fairy tales (and legends) with animals and people interacting were also viewed through a shapeshifting lens? (A reminder that the new Datlow & Windling anthology The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People was released just a few months ago*. The Fairy Tale Cupboard has a lovely post HERE.)

I did a little investigating to find a) the 'hair hat' was created by well known Japanese artist (and Art Director) Nagi Noda and b) she'd actually created fifteen of them. Sadly, she died in 2008 from surgical complications (initial injuries were from a traffic accident the previous year) at the age of 35 but she left behind a very interesting body of work.
From the archives at CMYKaboom:
Let me tell you a little bit about Nagi Noda. Nagi is a Japanese designer, and dominating nominee for "Person I Would Most Care to be When I Grow Up." An art director who became known for her cutting-edge work in print design, Noda was soon drafted by the big boys, specifically, Nike and the famed Laforet. More recently, Noda has moved into video, where she has proceeded to sweep awards with her music videos and commercials.
Nagi Noda's work is simply stunning: based deeply in surrealism, she makes whimsical works that are as beautiful as they are mind-bending; whether it's costume bags or poodle aerobics or carnivorous flower bunnies. She is also so prolific with these new ideas it is liable to make ones head spin. (FTNH Please note: I had some difficulty with the links but am keeping them in the quote in case they work for you.)

While fashion shoots often get flack for 'artistically bared skin' this is one of those cases in which it makes sense (though it's rarely more than a bared shoulder or two in this case). I also like that some of the models' features match/blend subtly with their animals - beauty in all forms.

The official Nagi Noda website is HERE and you can see some more of her work HERE (and make sure to scroll down to the underground house and the animal shadows).

One more for fun (also a Nagi Noda creation):I like this one for its storytelling. Are we surpressing our inner natures too much? Or is it just as well we try to keep a grip on our wild sides? This is one of the conundrums fairy tales do a great job of exploring and a reason I adore shapeshifter tales.

*You can read the preface to The Beastly Bride anthology HERE.

Sources for images at CMYKaboom and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. Gorilla hands also found HERE (link also shows a couple of other wild hair sculptures)