{"id":7274,"date":"2019-07-25T17:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T00:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000000955"},"modified":"2019-07-25T17:20:17","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T00:20:17","slug":"six-hours-with-japanese-artist-luise-ono-in-the-hot-hot-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/six-hours-with-japanese-artist-luise-ono-in-the-hot-hot-sun","title":{"rendered":"Six hours with Japanese artist Luise Ono in the hot, hot sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five minutes in to rolling thin layers of turquoise paint along the edges of a leaf half the size of my body, my arm started to cramp. It was also burning despite the SPF 50 I\u2019d slathered onto it. I stole a glance down from my perch on the lift<\/a> to see if the artist whose mural I was helping with had noticed, but she was cross-legged on the ground, focused on filling in a pink petal with a small brush.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, I volunteered for POW! WOW! Long Beach, helping Tokyo-based artist Luise Ono with her wall in Downtown. The process as a whole was pretty meditative. Ono would paint the outlines of each leaf shape for me to fill each one with color, sort of like those coloring books for adults\u2014as if you\u2019d brought one outside and sat down in the blazing hot sun, crayons melting, sweat dripping off your chin and onto the page like teardrops.<\/p>\n

The day before, I\u2019d stopped by Ono\u2019s wall late in the afternoon. Sandwiched in an alley between two multi-story buildings it seemed the sun couldn\u2019t reach her or her mural. \u201cMust be nice to have a wall in the shade,\u201d I said in a lame attempt to break the ice before introducing myself. She nodded and smiled, too polite to correct me with the fact that, um, no, I\u2019d just missed the brightest, blistering hours of the day.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to make assumptions during POW! WOW! Long Beach if you\u2019re not one of the artists, volunteers or organizers, I learned during my brief charade as a painter. One of those assumptions being that artists aren\u2019t athletes. I\u2019d go so far as to say that as much as POW! WOW! is a cultural celebration it could also be called Wallympics or Survivor. Ono and her husband\/assistant\/photographer Rio Yamamoto kept handing me waters and telling me to take breaks. They were the sweetest, but I think they were also worried about my general health.<\/p>\n

Can you endure seven straight days painting in the sun, going up and down on a wobbling lift, while responding to the well-meaning demands of photographers and the public? Can you endure the hard labor while also graciously receiving the attention of so many people excited to see you, having to explain who you are and the meaning behind your work over and over again to reporters and fans alike? I can imagine it’s mostly a blessing, but can sometimes feel like a curse when it’s close to 100 degrees out.<\/p>\n

I remember a couple of years ago when a certain local artist had been given his first wall. About four days in he\u2019d taped up a little sign that read something along the lines of “Please do not disturb me, I\u2019m overwhelmed, I need to finish this gigantic wall by Sunday,” etc. Based on my experience Wednesday, I can empathize with that decision to fend off the fans and set boundaries when you just need to get your mural done.<\/p>\n

These artists are donating their time to put up their gorgeous artwork here in Long Beach. Of course, they’re well taken care of while they’re here, but if you plan on visiting any of their walls, an ice-cold bottle beverage goes a long way.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Artist Luise Ono poses in front of her mural for POW! WOW! Long Beach on Wednesday, July 24. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The view from the lift at Luise Ono’s wall for POW! WOW! Long Beach at 800 Pine Ave. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Rio Yamamoto is more than Ono’s assistant, he’s also her husband, a skateboarder and professional photographer. Creative couple goals. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
A couple of the leaves I helped fill in with paint at Luise Ono’s wall for POW! WOW! Long Beach. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five minutes in to rolling thin layers of turquoise paint along the edges of a leaf half the size of my body, my arm started to cramp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":70403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[53],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2744],"class_list":["post-7274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-pow-wow-long-beach","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7274"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=7274"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}