Artist Profile

Name: Kazuo Ooka (Mr.)

Born:   Kawasaki , Japan , 1947 as the second son of Electrical Engineer and his wife

Artist  Biography

1947                Born in Japan

1968                Received a bachelor degree of Mechanical Engineering at Tokyo Denki University

1978                Immigrated to USA

1981-1998       Industrial entrepreneurial activities as a design engineer and business development for fluid handling equipments.  

1998                Started drawing practice at Oakton Community College , Des Planes IL.

1999                Joined The Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, Chicago IL and started several painting exercise.

2002                1^st Exhibition at Palette and Chisel with two other member artists.

2004                2^nd Exhibition at Palette and Chisel with two other member artists.

2006 Sep      Solo exhibition "Musicians World - CH06" at The Palette and Chisel Academy", Chicago, IL

2007 Feb      Solo exhibition "Musicians World -NY07" at The Nippon Club, New York, NY

Future Exhibition:   

Studies:

Studied at several workshops such as Diane Rath, Romel de La Torre, Gregg Kreutz, David Leffel, Clayton Beck and Jove Wang

Painted with an Italian Artist, Paulo DeMaria Guaitamacchi, for lengthy period in Chicago Illinois , Kyoto Japan and Northern Italy between 2002-2003.

Studying sculpture at New York Art Student League since Jan 3, 2006

Awards/Competitions

• Salmagundi Club (New York, NY) 2007 Non-Member show   Merit Award for Oil painting section

• Manhattan Art International 2007 Juried competition Accepted.

• Accepted at 2007 Le SALON D'AUTOMNE, Paris France

Artist Statement

Artists strive to capture the beauty of nature and meaning of life by bold brush strokes and with a discerning eye.
It would be a loss of an exquisite treasure if we do not recognize this beauty and even more so if a painter does not to convey it through his art.  

I am generally a realistic, though not photographically realistic, painter.  Painting requires hundreds of strokes which use thousands of possible color mixtures. The painting process is an accumulation of speculations, eliminations and trials and errors - it filters noises, amplifies sounds and optimizes colors.  I use bold strokes as much as possible. In order to apply bold strokes, a painter has to simplify forms and eliminate uncertainties. By painting through the process of simplification, artists make scenes appear beautiful in recognizable ways.  Forms become more visible and colors flourish more in our eyes.

The painting process is a powerful means of extracting beauty and bringing it directly in front of us.  Did I simplify the scene enough so that the beauty appears by itself?  Well, call me “artist in training”. The artist continues on his journey, just as a monk persists in his quest for enlightenment.