Muto's Awful Anger

The Death of a Human

I am a simple human
I keep myself restrained
All of my purest thoughts are filtered out or well contained

There is a power in me
To keep the pure controlled
But in this situation rage is something I can't hold

I am no longer human
That shell has just been shed
Now force and pure intention
Meet with your mortal head

Without the simple question
Of either wrong or right
My eyes alight with freedom
Will be your final sight

~Greg Halloran

Muto's Wavy Window

River of Light

The bumps on the glass all rise and fall
Creating the current for a river of light
The radiance rides its way to me
And massages my mangled mind

The bumps on the glass all rise and fall
Creating the current for a river of light
The radiance gently warms my skin
Until I doze off with the night

~Greg Halloran

Muto's Pretty Panoramas

I went to Duke Gardens in the summer of 2009, and I took a lot of pictures with my father's film camera. I had not scanned the photos on to the computer until now. I will be showing them in sets every once in a while. This first set focuses on panorama images. The first is a fake panorama; the second is real.

This set of three images was combined into a pseudo-panorama to make the idea for the painting from "Muto's Simple Swan."






The next panorama is from a cool circular area in the gardens. I didn't have a tripod, so it gets blurry on the left. I first tried to combine the images using photoshop's auto arrange feature. It ended up cutting a lady's body in half. So I combined the images using gimp, even though I didn't account for perspective like photoshop does. It is funny to see the same women walk through the different pictures.

Muto's Kind Sea Creature

This is the sculpture that precedes the one from "Muto's Friendly Fish" I made it for a competition in my high school art club in which all participants had to sculpt a monster. I like the idea of scary monsters, but I am more likely to make colorful creatures such as the one from "Muto's Merry Christmas.". I have only ever painted one thing that is supposed to be scary. I should show that next week.

I wanted to use only warm colors on the piece, so it looks like it is made of starburst. I made the surface of the body smooth. The lined texture on the fins creates some eye movement. The bug-like eyes were just a wacky decision. I wanted to focus on the rising and falling of the tail fins to create an element of dynamic sculpture: which is static, but looks like it could move.






Which fish do you like best: this one or the blue one?

Muto's Imminent Event "We H[art] UNC"

The following pieces will be on display in Wilson Library on Thursday Jan. 21 along with many other student works. The show is from 7 to 9 pm, but I will be there earlier.





High contrast design is perhaps my favorite style of art. I love portraiture and I like to combine it with my goal of giving the viewer a different image than one would encounter in every day life. These two portraits are drawn from odd angles and use design to create a human form from a mosaic of different motifs such as watermelon wedges, sunflowers, peacock feathers, sound waves, hearts, muscle fibers, carrots, sun rises, starry nights, fish scales, and smiley faces! What do you see?

Please come by the Pleasants Room in Wilson Library a week from today if you want to know more about the subject matter, my technique, my art, or see other great student work. There will be a performance by a student harpist and the Loreleis

Muto's Many Butterflies

I have been out in the cold a lot today, so it is time for some summer memories of butterflies. Well, really it was March 8th (Women's Day, one of those non-American holidays) and it was just a kite, but I will use an image to make you think of butterflies on a warm day.



This is a digitally edited photograph of my girlfriend flying a kite. The two curved strings holding butterflies were added with GIMP. I wanted to make the strings curved so the butterflies might appear to be alive, trying to fly away. The one on the bottom left is calm and obedient, but the other two want freedom.

I know the trees only have half of their leaves, but I warmed up the colors a bit to give it a happier feel. I hope you like the picture and you are staying warm.

My art will be on display on Thursday Jan. 21 in Wilson Library at UNC Chapel Hill. I will post a description of the two works here this Thursday.

Muto's Simple Swan

I had never painted reflective water until two weeks ago. I have mostly spent my time as an artist trying to invent my own styles that cannot be judged or easily compared to better artists. Now I am beginning to just toughen up and learn the basics.

I painted this piece for my father's Christmas present. I chose to combine three pictures of Duke gardens, which I will post soon. I combined pictures of a stone wall, a garden beside the water, and a swan in a pond surrounded by woods. There were no blue flowers, but I added them to repeat the blue from my mother's painting. I rushed the painting, but the only thing I really wish to be different is the value of the grass in the flower bed. I think it should be lighter.

With the water, I paid more attention to how I moved my brush than what the water actually looked like. The results aren't completely realistic, but I think it gets the point across in a pleasing way. The Swan is very minimalist and copies the bright white flash that appeared in the photo. The pure white paint presents an idealized, almost divine, version of the animal.

Muto's Amazing Arch

This is a painting I did for my mother for Christmas. It is acrylic paint on a 5x7 canvas panel. I chose a subject I thought would be special to my mom. It is Arch Rock from Mackinac Island in Michigan, where she often went on vacation as a child. I took a panorama picture of the rock formation when I visited the island last summer and I based the painting off of the picture.