Art and Culture-

‘Mountain Yellow Legged Frog’ by Dai Toyofuku.

Recently I’ve been to an art exhibit entitled ‘In the Landscape Where Nothing Officially Exists’ conceived by Dai Toyofuku and participated by a selected group of dedicated artists and biologists. The idea is to raise awareness to the list of 50 plus endangered species within the Los Angeles basin through art and symbolically allow them to bio diversified through art representations and reposting of its imagery on the internet.

From an article in the exhibition catalog, Dai Toyofuku wrote-

“Art deals with culture and it is human culture that in many ways determines the future of many species.”

I think that’s a great insight from Dai. When applying art in light of culture, artistic expressions become accessible, relevant and pertinent, trimming away any pretention and artificial flavoring.

The exhibit consisted of the many artworks, each represents an endangered species. It was held at lunch time outdoor and coincides with a larger event relating to arts and education. During this brief hour long interactive exhibition, one by one, the artworks were announced in their chosen spirit of respective endangered species ranging from fish, amphibians, insects to small mammals and to be given away free of charge- with the condition that should one choose to adopt an artwork, one has to post its image somewhere on the net.

I’m much delighted and very grateful to have found this ‘Mountain Yellow Legged Frog’ as interpreted by Dai Toyofuku. And in a sense, its spirit is now popping up here in Rainplace and being reintroduced at where I live in Glendale.

In nature, this small amphibian lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountain and hanging to life due to modern thread. To learn more about them, you can click here.

(Dai Toyofuku is also known as Stephen Wong and a major artistic contributor to My Little WORLD).

And below, an animated demo I made from a recent trip to Denmark… wasn’t quite happy with the result, but it brings beautiful memories when I was there).