Untitled

Dragon76

Japan based street artist Dragon76 was chosen to paint a mural for Long Beach Walls (FKA POW! WOW! Long Beach) 2016 street art festival. The Japanese artist studied oil painting at Osaka College of Art while practicing graffiti outside of the school system. Dragon’s graphic style is intricate and highly inspired by manga, urban graffiti, and ‘Ukiyo-e’ a traditional Japanese style of painting that flourished in Japan from the 17th to the 19th centuries. ‘Ukiyo-e’ translates as “pictures of the floating world”. The mural depicts an industrial, futurist samurai warrior helmet made up of several small robotic parts. The color palette used is copper orange and black where clouds are incorporated into the wall by using positive and negative space. With the floating clouds, Dragon gives the illusion of the samurai rising from the depths. The artist incorporated kanji characters on the samurai’s helmet to say ‘Creation and Destruction’. The message echoes to Buddhist beliefs about destruction for new creation.