Hello Motoko. Welcome to the Blue Period.

This new work is a series of paintings that re-visit Picasso’s Blue Period (1901-04) by inserting and interpreting digital stills in oil, “paused” from the classic film “Ghost in the Shell” (1995), a film that popularized Japanese anime to the West, directly influencing mainstream movies like The Matrix and Avatar.

It was the suicide of Carlos Casagemas that gave birth to The Blue Period. Picasso was 20 years old when his closest friend took his life at L’Hippodrome in Paris in 1901.There is comfort to be found in the manner in which Picasso’s grieved the loss of his friend. He turned to the colour blue and expressed the emotional turmoil he was in, capturing the spirit of the times, portraying the loneliness, despair and desolation outsiders experienced living on the edge with artwork that helped launch the avant garde of the 20th century.

Based on the manga by Masamune Shirow, Major Motoko Kusanagi is the main character in the film Ghost in the Shell, directed by Mamoru Oshii. What makes Matoko’s character so interesting and fitting for a visit to the the Blue Period in 2025, are her existential concerns. She has a cybernetic body, or shell and questions if her “ghost” retains any humanity, wondering if she’s comprised entirely of synthetic intelligence or if in fact, has a soul for lack of a better word. Her concerns essentially ask the question, who am I ? This calls to mind Arthur Koestler’s 1967 book of a similar title, Ghost in the Machine, which critiques the concept of the mind existing alongside and separate from the body. Motoko seeks answers throughout the film, finally meeting the Puppet Master, a rogue AI who has become sentient and who is also searching for existential meaning. In the end, Motoko and the Puppet Master "merge" to form a "newborn": a new entity that exists free of physical boundaries, like a soul or ghost, yet this entity can propagate itself through the Net…perhaps ghosts with no soul at all.

The film, and the subject matterI’m re-presenting in my paintings, both explore philosophical themes of identity and existence in a world where humans and machines are merging. The Blue Period examines similar themes of alienation and existential angst which are very relatable in the age of A.I.and advanced technologies. Bridging and bringing their works together, that’s what I’m trying to get at with these paintings…connecting the characters and their cultural, historical and cinematic baggage on a shared canvas.