“People ignore the strange and unusual. I, myself am
strange and unusual.”
Lydia from Bettlejuice
Kissing or Eating
Glass doll eyes,
possums, and butterfly wings on blindfolded girls.
Red Riding Hood holding
‘grandma’s’ cheek as she pours more wine.
Caterpillars crawling
along eyelashes and a bug’s leg holding an eye open wide…
Slide into the world of
Keiko Murakami where delicate doll like figures are printed into a startling
world of creatures and night time beauty.
Open your mind to ‘Paranoia
Fairy Tales.’
Night Birds
Joining other artists at 69 Smith Street Gallery, Keiko’s illustrations jumped at me for the
way her pen waltzed through the emotions of curiosity, fear, and love; all while holding onto a
startling beauty tingling my spine.
How curious I was to
see Red Riding Hood smothering ‘grandma’ with wine and licking her lips with
grandma missing in the next drawing.
‘Kissing or Eating’ posed a girl with a possum
in front of her lips. Held tightly in her grasp, the nails of the child are
feline and sharpened. How beautiful the girl appears to be, how terrifying to
think her mouth is opening wide for the furry animal. But, then again it could only be a kiss...
Let’s Drink more wine
Gazing into Keiko’s world
framed along the walls, my mind skipped to childhood days of rewinding
Beetlejuice or anything touched by Tim Burton. It was a budding fascination of
all things hauntingly beautiful.
Those words are how I’d
describe Keiko Murakami’s illustrations, but with a dash of humour. Her cute
little girls step beyond the conventional pose and mingle with animals in such
a way I tilt my head and wonder…
Chrysalis
Who’s There
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