~bananapanda's tumblr

THIS IS WHAT FUCKING HAPPENS WHEN YOU FORGET TO RINSE THE TUB OUT AFTER USING A LUSH INTERGALATIC BATHBOMB!

He’s fine. He got a bath.

The Showgirls posters have to be the most hilariously terrible designs I’ve seen in my life, yet I have never been able to find a single explication on what was the marketing team thinking.

Tyrus Wong October 25, 1910 - December 30, 2016

I haven’t been updating the blog a lot and only recently started working on it again. This post sat at the bottom of my drafts. It’s been there for almost a year. I wanted to start a new feature on the blog that would celebrate an artist and their work and I wanted to feature Tyrus Wong first; one of my favorite artists.

Earlier today he passed away at 106 years old. Tyrus Wong was a Chinese immigrant who spent the majority of his career being marginalized; his work often going unrecognized because of his race.

It was for his work on Disney’s Bambi, that Wong is perhaps most recognized for today, although, that took some time.

Inspired by the landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty, Wong created exquisite watercolor and pastel landscape paintings that would inspire the entire look of the film (see images above). Walt Disney loved his work so much that he was unofficially promoted as the films “inspirational sketch artist.”

Wong spent two years creating the illustrations that ultimately inspired the look and feel of the film Bambi. When animators and special effects artists had questions about color or lighting, they went to Wong. His work inspired everything from the tone of the film, to the special effects and the music.

Even though his work influenced the look and feel of the film, Wong’s named appeared at almost the bottom of Bambi’s credits as a background artist. Shortly after his work on Bambi ended, Wang, who had taken no part in them, was let go because of the animator’s strikes at Disney. Wang held no resentment toward the studio, believing that they had treated him good.

In 1942 he joined Warner Bros. where he worked as a storyboard artist, designer, and background artist until his retirement in 1968.

Since his retirement he’s done work primarily as a painter and also worked as a muralist, ceramicist, lithographer, designer and later in life; a kite maker. In the 90′s he had a sort of resurgence as he became widely recognized for his work in fine art and painting.

Wong spent the majority of his career breaking racial barriers, not letting himself be constrained by the lines set down by others and in 2001 he finally got the recognition he deserved for his work on Bambi; and was honored as a Disney Legend.

So I found this caterpillar on my way to class

i made him a tube room

His wife, Yukiko, was also a part of this; she is often credited with suggesting the plan. The Sugihara family was held in a Soviet POW camp for 18 months until the end of the war; within a year of returning home, Sugihara was asked to resign - officially due to downsizing, but most likely because the government disagreed with his actions.

He didn’t simply grant visas - he granted visas against direct orders, after attempting three times to receive permission from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and being turned down each time. He did not “misread” orders; he was in direct violation of them, with the encouragement and support of his wife.

He was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 1985, a year before he died in Kamakura; he and his descendants have also been granted permanent Israeli citizenship. He was also posthumously awarded the Life Saving Cross of Lithuania (1993); Commander’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1996); and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2007). Though not canonized, some Eastern Orthodox Christians recognize him as a saint.

Sugihara was born in Gifu on the first day of 1900, January 1. He achieved top marks in his schooling; his father wanted him to become a physician, but Sugihara wished to pursue learning English. He deliberately failed the exam by writing only his name and then entered Waseda, where he majored in English. He joined the Foreign Ministry after graduation and worked in the Manchurian Foreign Office in Harbin (where he learned Russian and German; he also converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church during this time). He resigned his post in protest over how the Japanese government treated the local Chinese citizens. He eventually married Yukiko Kikuchi, who would suggest and encourage his acts in Lithuania; they had four sons together. Chiune Sugihara passed away July 31, 1986, at the age of 86. Until her own passing in 2008, Yukiko continued as an ambassador of his legacy.

You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives….The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.

The stone next to him bears a quote from the Talmud; “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.”  

TOMORROW IS HALLOWEEN!!!