The theme of my exhibition is identity shown through Japanese mythology. I wanted to make artwork based on the knowledge I had about Japanese ghosts as well as researching them in depth to stay in touch with my Japanese culture. I'm very fascinated by abnormal and scary art in general, and I wanted to paint in a scary style which I felt would shock and intrigue the audience. I wanted to be able to tie all my pieces together with a common theme, while also adding a personal element to it so I included the perceptions I had of identity in each of my pieces. The chosen artworks provide a diverse range of my skills in using different media and art styles.

The first piece I made relates to self-esteem and was inspired by Junji Ito, who creates stories of beautiful girls with a creepy and twisted element to their appearance. I related it to my experiences with self-esteem which I thought about most when I was in my room, so I made 2 paintings to compare high and low levels of self-esteem in a bedroom setting. I created this in acrylic after exploring different media as felt it could replicate the effect of manga drawings with the opaqueness of the colors and ability to create fine details. This piece was essential for me to understand where my exhibition was headed, and the process of how I was going to make the other pieces as well. The next piece is about a girl arriving late to a party but still maintaining her composure and owning her identity, going against the norm (as she only appears in the night). I was inspired by my sister who sometimes arrives late and I used watercolor for this which I felt added a traditional Japanese painting feel which I replicated from Ikenaga Ieyasu.  Another piece was of cats who appear to be acting like humans, showing a diverse range of personality and appearance and being yourself around friends. I decided to do it in the Renaissance style inspired by Renoir for this piece.  I also included a piece about a smoking  girl with a snake tail hiding aspects of her identity but shows that she cannot control her addiction. This piece discusses smoking addictions which I felt was a common issue seeing the young girls around me. A piece that was more personal in my exhibition was the skeleton piece which shows how adults treat my opinions (skeletons sitting in a field that farmers had worked hard to create and are eating breakfast on it). Another piece is of my dad who is a mentor to my identity which have was expressed by sumo wrestlers. The last piece is a sculpture of a dollhouse which represents people trying to be something they are not.  In this way, all my pieces have been inspired by firsthand experiences and have allowed me to extensively research Japanese myths to understand my culture more. Each piece used a different artist to attempt different style or media.