Renowned New York-based artist Naoto Nakagawa is putting his talent to good use, seeking to draw 100 portraits of celebrities that he will auction off to help survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Renowned New York-based artist Naoto Nakagawa is putting his talent to good use, seeking to draw 100 portraits of celebrities that he will auction off to help survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
"Visiting disaster-stricken areas and learning about the lives of survivors, I felt their need for economic assistance," Nakagawa, 67, said. "I want to do what I can as an artist."
Nakagawa is pursuing the project in conjunction with his "1,000 portraits of hope," in which he is aiming to draw portraits of 1,000 survivors of the March 11 disaster and relief workers.
On the celebrity front, so far he has drawn 35 portraits, both in the United States and Japan, including of John Roos, the U.S. ambassador to Japan.
Other celebrities who have posed for Nakagawa include Donald Keene, an 89-year-old professor emeritus of Japanese literature at Columbia University in New York who has applied for Japanese citizenship; internationally acclaimed Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, 67; and Yasushi Akashi, an 80-year-old former undersecretary-general of the United Nations.
Also modeling for him was Azumi Inoue, a 46-year-old singer who sang the theme song in Hayao Miyazaki's hit animated film "My Neighbor Totoro."
Inoue has visited disaster areas, including Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture, and sang for survivors.
"I hope my portrait will fetch a good price so that it can help people (in the Tohoku region) who have supported me," Inoue said.