This piece was inspired by the painting ‘Dancing Mutants’ by Hernando R. Ocampo in 1965. Dancing mutants was inspired by the art style known as Neo Realism which is a art style where an artist draws what’s happening in the world at that time. He was born in 1911 in Manila. Ocampo based this painting on the atomic bombing during WW2 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One thing I liked about Dancing mutants was there were many ways of interpreting the painting. There were also many hidden figures which communicates the secrets and what has not been discovered. 

I used the numbers 2, 40 and 4 in my own painting. The number 2 stands for the 2.2 billion dollars that were spent on bombings.  The number 4 represents my four grandparents who have fought in wars since WW2, and was born during the recovery after WW2. The 40’s represent the decade my grandparents were born in and when WW2 ended. The stripes and circles represent the flags of the two nations fighting each other- the stripes of the USA and the circle from the Japanese flag. The overlapping of the stripes and the circles represents the conflict and the two countries fighting. The stripes with the white square underneath it represents one of the many war medals which my grandpa received. This painting is very relevant to me and my family as I am Japanese and American and it is interesting to fathom during WW2 they were enemies now they are united and Japan has pledged not to fight in war anymore.