The Art of Incredible People

Michael Mendenhall: We wanted to do something a little different. I went to Art Basel, if you're familiar with Art Basel, in Miami, and there's a place called the Wynwood Walls. And in those Wynwood Walls, you see amazing artists who actually paint murals on walls in every city around the world. And I thought, "What if we were to get a collaboration with Annie [Leibovitz] and one of these artists that takes the portraiture to another level?" And it was very exciting that Tadaomi agreed to want to do this. You're going to see these portraitures, which were Annie's portraitures, with a collaboration with Tadaomi Kawasaki.

So it is my pleasure to bring him up. You should also know he is an Academy Award winner, so we're very excited to have him with us and he's hand-painting some of the work here today with People Matter. Tadaomi, come up. Awesome. I have to tell you, Tadaomi, it is pretty amazing that I was in the feature film business for 17 years.

Tadaomi Kawasaki: Oh, yes.

Michael: ... and did not know that you have an Academy Award.

Tadaomi: Oh, yes. Actually, my career started in 2004. My main job is a digital matte painter for film. Mostly I'm painting landscape, but...

Michael: But I should explain, because when you guys think of matte paintings, you're thinking of matte paintings for artists. He does this in film. And what happens is, when the director is filming something, there are pieces that he can't capture, that are missed. And you fill those in.

Tadaomi: Yes. I'm painting the green screen areas. So mostly the sky, mountains, oceans.

Michael: Yeah.

Tadaomi: Whatever the landscape.

Michael: Yeah. And some of these films are pretty awesome, right?

Tadaomi: Oh, yeah.

Michael: Hunger Games, Dune.

Tadaomi: Yes.

Michael: Superman. I mean, we...

Tadaomi: Shang-Chi.

Michael: Oh yeah. Yes, yes.

Tadaomi: Yeah, it's our most recent one.

Michael:
Oh, the new one. Yeah, yeah. Have you all seen that? Shang-Ching, the new film? Okay, well, he did all of the matte paintings within that film. And again, that's filling in all of the backgrounds on green screen digitally.

Tadaomi: Yes.

Michael: Yeah. He started with some of these with the digital rendering, which is what People Matter was. And now you're recreating that live in person, yeah?

Tadaomi: Yes.

Michael: Yeah, you're painting one over here now.

Tadaomi: Oh, yes.

Michael: From digital.

Tadaomi: Yes. I'm usually using the digital painting before starting the actual painting.

Michael: Yeah.

Tadaomi: So figure out what color is the best.

Michael: Okay, so all these people are going to want to know, who was the best director you worked with? That's hard, huh? Your most favorite.

Tadaomi: Yeah. I would say it's Mr. Nolan or Zack Snyder.

Michael: Yeah? Oh, awesome. Oh, that's very good. Now, so some of this work is like a second career for you, right? Your personal work, because you're doing some of this work digitally for feature films and you're now doing some of this work, which we see here, which is more physical.

Tadaomi: Yes.

Michael: And some of it is a passion of yours.

Tadaomi: Yeah.

Michael: Can you talk about that?

Tadaomi: Mostly, I've been painting landscape for film for 14 years, then I got some kind of tired of making the landscape.

Michael: Yeah, I can imagine. Like, "I'm painting another mountain."

Tadaomi: Yes. So, I need a more fresh painting. So I just started a portrait on the canvas and...

Michael: Yeah. Well, it's beautiful. I mean, all the people... There's so many people here that want all these to be NFTs. Are you going to make this an NFT? Because you're a digital artist, right?

Tadaomi: Oh, yeah.

Michael: I mean, that's certainly the next step. Where did you start this in your life? When did you begin to love this idea?

Tadaomi: Mostly my idea is coming when I walk outside with my dogs.

Michael: Yes.

Tadaomi: And... Yeah.

Michael: What age? What age?

Tadaomi: About 2018.

Michael: Yes.

Tadaomi: In that...

Michael: Are you influenced at all… It's become pretty huge, Japanese art. And you're seeing a big resurgence of certain types of animated films. Miyazaki and a bunch of others become really, really influential in almost modern day pop culture. Are you influenced at all by Miyazaki and some of those Japanese animated filmmakers?

Tadaomi: I usually... Yeah. Yeah.

Michael: Yes?

Tadaomi: My idea is coming from the animation as well, yeah.

Michael: So anime?

Tadaomi: Yes.

Michael: Is anime interesting? Do you find any inspiration from anime?

Tadaomi: Yes. Yes. If you look at my portrait, it's similar to the illustration portrait. It's not realistic.

Michael: Yeah. And where do you... You're still continuing in film…

Tadaomi: Mm-hmm.

Michael: Will you stay in film? Or how much more original beautiful art will we see from you?

Tadaomi: I'd like to keep the film job, the acrylic paint is my side of business, so it's... Yeah.

Michael: And when you were approached by TriNet to look at Annie Leibovitz's photos and sort of interpret them, was that exciting for you?

Tadaomi: Yes, yes. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah.

Michael: Yeah?

Tadaomi: Yes, because this is the first time at CES, so I'm so proud of here.

Michael: Have you gotten to tour and see anything?

Tadaomi: No. I haven't. No, not yet.

Michael: Okay. Are they going to give you time tomorrow to go see something?

Tadaomi: Yeah, that sounds great.

Michael: No, you should.

Tadaomi: Yeah.

Michael: You will be blown away. But I cannot thank you enough for coming from Canada, he's from Japan, but lives in Canada,to do this. And you did it on such short notice, which was amazing to me, the amount of paintings that you took on and did before coming here.

Tadaomi: Oh, thanks.

Michael: I know it was days and days of trying to quickly produce this product. And then to get to see you live, do this, is pretty awesome.

Tadaomi: Thank you. It's my pleasure.

Michael: So thank you, Tadaomi, for coming, for participating and really making beautiful art.

Tadaomi: Thank you so much.