{"id":81140,"date":"2014-05-12T17:23:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T08:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&p=49772"},"modified":"2016-04-01T02:50:57","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:50:57","slug":"gifted-10-year-old-fukuoka-artist-mondo-okumura","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/gifted-10-year-old-fukuoka-artist-mondo-okumura\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifted 10 Year Old Fukuoka Artist – Mondo Okumura"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mondo Okumura (AKA Mondo-kun) an elementary school fifth grader in Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City, is under the spotlight for his unique drawings of the world\u2019s star musicians. \u201cIt is relentless. He never overlooks the model\u2019s wrinkles or even age spots.\u201d comments a magazine editor, on Mondo\u2019s style. At only 10 years of age, Mondo has a regular column for a local magazine under his belt, and receives orders for his artwork from abroad via the Internet. He recently did a live demo at Fukuoka PARCO in Tenjin on May 5 (Children\u2019s Day).<\/p>\n

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Mondo started to draw at age three, and has chosen musicians like David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon for his models, thanks to the influence of his musician father (39). He watches carefully the picture or a model in front of him, and draws the details with his trusty marker. Mondo never shows his process to his family because their surprised expressions when he reveals his finished piece is one of his incentives! He has posted one portrait of a celebrity on the his blog every day since last April. His website gradually received recognition, and eventually local youth monthly magazine \u201cNO!!\u201d offered him a regular \u2018portrait clinic column.\u2019 The column lasted for nine months from last June. Hirokazu Matsumoto (44), representative of \u201cNO!!\u201d says, \u201cHe never tries to flatter; instead, he draws faithfully what he sees. That\u2019s inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of Mondo\u2019s works featuring Hayao Miyazaki, Japan\u2019s favorite animator, made the cover of a nursing home magazine. He also published a book of his portraits in March, and made live appearances in Tokyo and Osaka. More than 40,000 people visit his blog daily, and orders come from South Korea and Brazil. His name \u2018mondo\u2019 means \u2018the world\u2019 in Italian. He says, \u201cI wish I could travel around the world and draw portraits in the future.\u201d Visit Mondo Okumura\u2019s blog here: http:\/\/mondo-art.blog.jp<\/a>\u00a0(all images from here). Original story source: Nishinippon Shimbun, 5\/3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mondo Okumura (AKA Mondo-kun) an elementary school fifth grader in Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City, is under the spotlight for his unique drawings of the world\u2019s star musicians. \u201cIt is relentless. He never overlooks the model\u2019s wrinkles or even age spots.\u201d comments a magazine editor, on Mondo\u2019s style. At only 10 years of age, Monda has a regular column for a local magazine under his belt, and receives orders for his artwork from abroad via the Internet. He recently did a live demo at Fukuoka PARCO in Tenjin on May 5 (Children\u2019s Day).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6391,"featured_media":49775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-81140","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-category-general","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/81140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}