Quiet People
Ryoko Tajiri
8.5x10 P.B. 48pgs.
$25.00
1-60052-019-8

The abstract paintings and monotypes shown as “Quiet People” came from Ryoko’s art show at the the Academy of Art fine art gallery in San Francisco in March of 2006. Using her experimental layering techniques with “Woman at White Table” and “Woman and Man at Cafe”, Ryoko provides another much less explored option by creating perspective outside the parameters of graphic theory.

And with “Girl by Window” and “Woman by White Chair” Ryoko has upgraded conventional thought and shown how alternate composition models can invite viewers to wonder, what is beyond art on canvas; and one becomes curious about the thoughts and emotions of her abstract figures. This time the artist is entreating her public to come and stay a little longer...there is a lot more to art than what a cursory glance will reveal.

But perhaps the most powerful of Ryoko’s 2006 works are two striking pieces called “Waiting” and “Seated Nude”. These are bold abstract figures, and the look and feel of how they are portrayed by the artist first invites curiosity followed by public association. They have a soul and emotion that jumps out and grabs whomever takes a moment to stop and look.

The four smaller monotypes created by Ryoko at the end of this collection are strong and sculpture like in creation. Figure 1 & 2 and Portrait 1 & 2 are a very different approach and technique to creating a dimensional look than her paintings, but they remain in the end of the same result...bold statements of emotion.

We all wonder what the future will bring. Some of us will associate the figures in Ryoko’s art with one or more of their family or friends. And it even could happen that a few of us may turn over a page to a mirror, inside of “Quiet People”.

- Charles Cunningham