FIRED UP

Despite the fact that the recent global events have blended one day in to the next, it would seem that this Sato Katsuhiko Fudo is all fired up for Friday and the impending weekend. This stern, even ominous Fudo image still has that sly sense of humor and light heartiness that most of Sato's paintings tend to be imbued with even when taking on the most serious and religious iconography available. I can not help but always feel just a bit more positive and lively when I am confronted with a painted image or calligraphy by the late Sato Katsuhiko and it is a bit of whimsy and playfulness that harkens back to some of the older literati painters like Tomioka Tessai and Fukuda Kodojin and the Zen paintings of Gibon Sengai among just a few. As I have mentioned before, despite presenting this angry red Fudo as just that there are tidbbits present and knowing the character of the artist to let you see a glimmer of fun in what is usually a very stoic and eminently serious immovable deity king.