Experience: Oura Sananikone's Lunchtime Lecture

This Week I attended the lunchtime lecture by Mr. Oura Sananikone. I actually had the opportunity to meet and volunteer with Mr. Sananikone over the summer at the Visual Arts Center, and so I was familiar with his work going into the lecture. His style is very unique and I have never really seen another artist produce work like his, even in the world of comic books. I asked Mr. Sananikone during the lecture where he draws inspiration from and he gave me a very simple yet clear answer. He said that his style is really a culmination of all of the influences he has interacted with since childhood, from comic books and TV to other fine artists. I think that this is something that many people can understand. I try and base my art off of other works that I see and find visually pleasing, and even though I haven't really developed a unique style yet I can still see influence from other artists and even my classmates in my work.

Another part of the lecture that I found really interesting was when Mr. Sananikone was talking about his main passion project and how his lived experiences influence what he allows himself to work for and how they affect the subject matter of his work. He said that one of his comics "Robot Wars" is mainly supposed to be an anti war project and how to make the visuals more effective he used reference pictures from real life conflicts. What really stuck with me though was how he had never used the Vietnam War as a reference because of its very personal connection and how it directly affected the course of his life, being an immigrant from Laos. I found it very inspiring hearing about how as the project grew and became more personal to him, he challenged himself to touch into that part of his life for inspiration and how it made the project more effective and personal to him.