Maiko conjures a series of powerful scenes. She depicts girls in all of her paintings and through employing brown hues she generates a rustic feeling. She illustrates organic scenes that portray the girls as an untainted object. The perspective in her paintings is formed in an innovative manner, and she indicates her focal subject by challenging the sizes of the objects in the background. The girls in her paintings project a child-like gaze, and stare directly at the viewer. The subject’s gaze is very innocent, yet simultaneously it has a sense of self-consciousness. The eyes have been painted with an almost translucent sky-blue, which compels the viewer to affix their gaze at the girls’ eyes. The unswerving subject of girls in Maiko’s paintings depicts the artist’s interest in female childhood, and perhaps a fond memory from her own infancy. Her impressionist rendering of this subject re-enforces the subjects being drawn from her memory, as it amalgamates a sequence of abstract images. The artist challenges the traditions of Asian iconography by portraying female children rather than male ones. In traditional East Asian paintings male babies have perceived of bringing joy to families as they allow the continuation of worship of family ancestors. Maiko defies this by presenting confident, self-satisfied girls, who look intently at the viewer, making them question this traditional notion.
Jimmy Lek.
