"Ghia for Kazu"
Jesse Mangerson MFA Illustration 2007
The relationship between the student and the teacher can be brutally honest but in this honesty a clear bond of trust can be built, and as a result a flood of creative growth is forth coming. Many students have known Kazu Sano on intimate levels... I am one of those students.
I studied under Kazu for multiple semesters, both in the group setting of narrative illustration and in the one on one environment of directed study. Kazu challenged my concepts unlike anyone I had encountered. His critique, while insightful, often left me with further questions that I was then challenged to answer. Questions in reference to my processes and the result of that process and questions in reference to my existence and the result of that existence in my work. Much of the early work I produced in my time with Kazu fell short of where I wanted it to be, making for piles of frustration and bringing about further questions.
Kazu then challenged me to find freedom in my work. I had little idea what he meant... Freedom? "I am painting what I want to paint and how I want to paint it" were my initial thoughts, but I was bound by the choices that I was making within the project that I thought I was building without even knowing it. As my work evolved I transitioned from my process of illustration into a direct approach to painting non-confrontational objects, fruit to be specific, in my search for the freedom that I sought. In this approach I found an element of freedom that balanced and was integrated into my thesis works... Freedom from the forced narratives that I had bound myself with, freedom to express the metaphorical as commentary on the literal. From here my work would drastically evolve into a whole new branch of my existence as an artist. I had come to understand more about the dialogue that Kazu and I had been having for over a year and this realization allowed me to be fully saturated by Kazu's advice.
In one of the final works that I completed while studying with Kazu, I was referencing a Karmen Ghia; using the reflections from the curvaceous hood to wield a simple narrative describing my current existence and the coming of our second child. As I presented this image of myself reflected in the hood of this car, Kazu's face lit up. He recalled the first time he had seen this car and the awe that it's feminine curves and unique design flaunted as is drove by him in an anecdote that seemed to rise from that specific moment in his youth and emerge through his eyes to be culminated in his words.
This is how Kazu would speak of beauty, with all of his energy. He could find beauty in the mess of his kitchen or in the more obvious: the passing relationship between a baker and art student in search of bread to use in place of a kneaded eraser to find only that a gift of butter, on that bread, had been rewarded to the student as a gesture of courtship.
Kazu was rich in spirit which he selflessly shared. As he once told me in reference to his battle with cancer, "I am a feisty guy..." and he was one, whose passion for the world exists eternally in his work, his family, and all of his students.
I will always seek the beautiful in that which I create. In this journey of creation, I will continue to communicate with the part of Kazu that I keep with me... this will be a true joy.
Thank you Kazu.
- Jesse
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