Art That Makes Me Wanna Write a Book. Also, WINNERS!!

Seriously, I am secret science nerd.
More on this in another post, possibly tomorrow, but today I know what you're really here for...

WINNERS!!!

I popped over to randomizer.org, assigned the 8 contest entrants a number for each entry they had, and out of the 40 numbers assigned, I ended up with 2 winners.
That's right, 2! The gods of Randomizer did something so... random...that I had to take it as a sign. Either that or Randomizer has stalker tendencies, so I'm just gonna back away nicely and let Big R have the two he picked . Of the top 6 numbers, 3 belonged to one person and 3 belonged to another...and they alternated.

So randomizer totally has a stalker crush on:

VALERIE (from Something to Write About )
and
STEPHANIE (from Hatshepsut: The Writing of a Novel )

Congrats you guys! but you might want to make sure your phone numbers are unlisted...
email me at: shop (at) mystudioacorn (dot) com, and tell me which print you want and where to mail it :-)


NOW, ON TO THE ART!
Today's piece is one Matt ended up giving me for my birthday because I love it so much.

It's called Fighting, by Japanese artist Shohei.
Three interesting facts about Shohei:
1. He doesn't use his last name, because his father happens to be uber-famous Japanese animator, Otomo-san, and I assume he'd rather make art without that kind of baggage.
2. He is color-blind, hence the use of black and white, and sometimes a splash of red. His mother told me she noticed the color-blindness when he was a kid-- he pointed to green leaves on a tree and said they were purple!
3. His art is done entirely with a ball-point pen. Let me repeat that. He works entirely in ball-point pen. All that shading, ball-point pen. Seriously. Watch him work on youtube-- it's freaking amazing

Obviously I love this piece, and there are many reasons, but here are the two main things:
First, the two boys make me think of my nephews-- not so much that they get into bloody fistfights with each other, but they are Japanese schoolkids and they wear those cute uniforms and leather backpacks.
Second, it reminds me why I love writing MG and YA. There is such complexity and depth to kids' emotions. Look at all the hurt and rage on those 8 year old faces!
Too often adults write off kids' emotions as simple or not important, as if adults are the only complex ones in the room because they have Responsibilities. How many times have we heard an adult tell an upset kid to just "wait until you're grown-up and have Real Things to worry about"?
I happen to think that adults are waaay more emotionally simple than kids, because they're not in the throes of Figuring Out How The World Works! Remember when you were 8, and still trying to find your place in all that mess, and how to interact with...everything without getting in trouble? And just when you started to think you were in control, hormones wreaked havoc on you and you had to learn everything all over again? Yah. Emotionally speaking, way harder to be a young person. And probably the reason so many people are drawn to MG and YA fiction, because it allows us all to remember and rediscover the incredible rush of all those synapses and neurons making connections.

Did I mention that I'm a secret science nerd?