This year the Lakeview Fort Oglethorpe upper-level students participated in a painting competition sponsored by the Japanese consulate in Atlanta. Two of the artists placed 2nd and 3rd out 15 schools in the Southeast region including Sewanee, North Carolina and multiple schools in Atlanta.
Dakota Carney and JJ Perry, both 10th grade LFO students, are being honored by the consulate for their version of Mt. Fuji and Japanese landscape painting from an American perspective.
In Dakota’s work, he uses a dominant red and orange palette to depict a serene landscape behind a house built in the style of a temple. He illustrates a sense of village life in the foreground of the revered mountain. He received a certificate and a 4-function mechanical pencil in a brushed finish with notecards featuring Japanese iconography as gifts for his accomplishment.
“I feel society has changed and I wanted to show a modern view of a Japanese rural landscape," said Dakota. "In America, we mostly see city culture when Japan is showcased in the news and the county life has a different feel to it. My goal was to relate my rural experience to theirs.”
JJ Perry utilized the four seasons patterning to split his idea into panels. JJ’s favorite medium is clay and this was his first experiment in watercolor. He showcases Mt. Fuji in the background with a lake and temple in the foreground. His matting was layered with black and red paint to offer the viewer an intentional look at brushstrokes. He believes that, “to live an artist’s life you need to stop caring what everyone thinks and just do what you love.”
All of the students who participated received a thank you letter signed by Kazuo Sunaga, the consul general. In it he expressed his gratitude for the overwhelming response to the call for entries and his appreciation for the detailed artwork students created about his homeland.