1) Who is the artist? The time period? What attracted you to this song or art piece? What ideas and feelings does it convey? To you, what is the most striking element of your song or art piece?

Kadokawa Shoten is the artist I chose. He is a Japanese artist that is well-known for his futuristic style and surrealism. The time. Is the future in Japan. I was attracted to this art piece because I like the idea that everyone looks exactly the same yet one of them is really some kind of samurai warrior in disguise. It conveys the feeling of raw power in the samurai. It also conveys the feeling of sameness and everyone else. Everyone looks the same but the same suit on in the same blank expression except for the samurai who has awesome sunglasses. The most striking element of this art piece is that the main focus of the art doesn't catch your eye right away it almost looks like daily life in Japan into you notice the guy with the long sword and awesome sunglasses.

2) Compare and contrast your song or art piece to a well-known work by any American or British artist or musician. What are the similarities and the differences?

The artist Jeff Faust is an American surreal artist. There are not many similarities between the two paintings other than they're both magical and have a fantasy element to them. The painting by Faust seems more juvenile and aimed at a younger audience than the painting by Shoten. The painting by Shoten looks like part of the videogame and you can imagine the violence that's going to happen any second and the other painting by Faust looks happy and sweet.

 

3) How does the content and the style of your art piece or song reflect the beliefs or the customs of your culture?

In Japan there is a long history of conforming for the betterment of everybody. Everyone in the picture is dressed the same including the samurai. In Japan it is very popular for men to work long hours because it is considered honorable to be a hard worker. The futuristic buildings show that Japan wants to be the center of the digital world in the future. There are many customs surrounding samurais as the protectors of the Japanese people and for whatever reason it doesn't look like the samurai will kill any of the worker bees going to their job and looks like he's after somebody bad.