Wave, Hello!

I’m not going to lie- much of my art knowledge comes secondhand from what my kids are learning about in Art class. (By the way, their Art teacher is amazing. Gone are the days of making collages with rubber cement [which I’m pretty sure isn’t even legal in schools anymore. It smells too good to be legal.]) These kids are learning actual things. It warms my heart. My art heart, if you will.

Last year Adrienne came home and told me to Google The Great Wave.

What did the ocean say to the shore? Nothing! It just waved.

It turns out The Great Wave isn’t just a fun stadium game at sporting events! It is a woodblock print created by Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai between 1829 and 1832; the print is fully named, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” and is just one part of a series showing Mount Fuji from several angles. Frankly, I never realized what an influence Japanese art had on…. well… art! I’ve been reading about Mary Cassatt lately and when she discovered Japanese art, her paintings quickly took on an Asian “feel.” Among others, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec were also enamored with Japanese prints, and (wisely) let them influence their work.

When I read up a little on The Great Wave I learned Claude Debussy composed “The Sea” after being inspired by Hokusai’s print. Don’t you love it when art inspires art?! More importantly, I found The Great Wave is a popular tattoo. Way to go Hokusai, almost 200 years later you still aren’t washed up!