 ason Atomic lived in Japan (1994-98) where he developed his current style of painting and started a series of journals and dream diaries from which he derives his written and spoken word material.
His brightly coloured paintings reflect his obsessions and experiences. When choosing subject matter he pays equal attention to traditional, pop, and underground themes, giving his work a unique cultural overview. There is a desire for authenticity that drives him to work from life, which means that some paintings take many years to realise whilst subjects are tracked down and persuaded to pose.
Whilst in Japan he produced a variety of portrait, still life and landscape works. He met and sketched many top "idoru" & rock stars, including; Demon Kogure, Pico Pico, Shinohara Tomoe, The Yellow Monkey, Yuming, Bonnie Pink and Shazna.
Top manga creators Nagai Go & Takahashi Makoto, Tattooists at work in the famous Horitoshi studies in Ikebukuro.
He made an extensive study of Tokyo street fashion and produced urban landscape paintings of Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kobe (where he experienced the devastating earthquake.)
Atomic has exhibited in group & solo exhibitions as well as curating events for the cultural exchange organisation "Superculture"
His spoken word performances feature sampled and sequenced background music by musician Simon James and the mighty Akai Kun. These tales are taken directly from his personal experience and dream diaries, which he writes every morning on waking.
Says Atomic regarding his work;
"Like the Japanese, whose verb 'Kaku' means to write and to draw, the Egyptians (with their hieroglyphs), Graffiti 'writers', and comic book creators, I express myself both in words and pictures. I sketch daily from life, this gets interesting especially when working on celebrity and underground portraits, and work these slice of life incidents into oil paintings.
My writing comes directly from my dreams and personal experiences, ending up as spoken word performance. I try to make my work as straightforward as possible, I believe artists have a duty communicate clearly making the world a more colourful and interesting place."
(Contact) E-mail:263atomi@ewacc.co.uk
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