Adoration by Ika Essenhigh
My Opinion of "My Reality"
by Chris Waddell
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In the past couple of years there has been a rapid growth in the number of people who have started following Japanese art and animation. I haven't been one of these people. In a sense I'm still not a fan of anime per se, but I have developed an interest in it now, because of the Anime exhibit at the Tampa Museum of Art. Even though the artist Inka Essenhigh is an American woman, she had two pieces in the exhibit, entitled SuperGod and Adoration. Both of these seemed to draw my attention from all the other pieces, and in the process I've learned of a great artist.
Inka Essenhigh is an established New York contemporary painter born in Belfonte Pennsylvania, in 1969. She graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1991. She then attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Adoration is the first piece of hers I saw. Even though the light green background was almost bland, what caught my attention was the imagery I saw in the picture. Looking at the piece I came to the conclusion that it was depicting Death taking a loved one away, because a black mass seemed to be carrying away the man from his family. Then I thought of the meaning of adoration. There are two definitions, one being great love and esteem. The second definition is a religious worship of God, a deity, or a spirit. I came to the conclusion that this painting depicted both. From the point of view of Christian mythology, God, who is worshipped, is taking away someone whom the characters have a great love for. The black mass could be interpreted as death or maybe God, and at the bottom you have a person reaching to him with despair on his face with the brown color representing the ground of earth.
The second piece is titled SuperGod. What first drew me to the piece was the similarity of the colors used in Adoration. The greens are mixed with light and dark shades of the color. The use of the brown is also present, though not as much as in Adoration. The pink helps make the "characters" stand out prominently. I see as possibly a "deity" lowering a branch for a follower to climb to his level. This particular style the artist is following is very favorable to me.
The trip to the museum was far better than I had anticipated from the beginning. The anime exhibit had a huge impact on me. I always thought that Anime was just all big-eyed tiny little kids running around fighting each other. I never took the time to actually look at the "art". I never realized that the spectrum was so broad. I think I can say not only was this trip to the museum actually fun, but also educated me in a lot about the world of anime. I learned that not only is it cartoonish type but very thought- provoking as well.