Nina Akamu
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Nina Akamu | |
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| Born | 1955 Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II |
| Awards | Henry Herring Award, 2002 |
| Website | www.NinaAkamu.com |
Nina Akamu (born 1955) is a
Early years and education
Nina Akamu was born in 1955 in
In 1969 her family was transferred back to the United States, moving to Dover, Delaware, where Akamu graduated high school. She studied with American painter and anatomist, Joseph Sheppard. She found her passion for sculpture in the final year of her education and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1977.[1]
Career
Akamu moved to Florence, Italy in 1979 and eventually married Joseph Sheppard. The move to Italy was life changing. She began sculpting full-time, becoming a member of the
Leonardo's Horse
Leonardo da Vinci's Horse, Inc. (LDVHI) contracted Tallix Art Foundry in 1997 to cast a plaster horse created by retired airline pilot and founder Charles C Dent. As the sculpture was left incomplete at the time of his death and contained anatomical problems, Fred Meijer (patron of the bronze copy the American horse) suggested bringing Nina Akamu on board to improve upon the Dent-Herrick horse.
She moved to
Leonardo had made numerous small sketches of horses to help illustrate his notes about the complex procedures for molding and casting the sculpture. But his notes were far from systematic, and none of the sketches points to the final position of the horse, with no single definitive drawing of the statue. Akamu researched multiple information sources to gain insight into the original sculptor's intentions. She studied both Leonardo's notes and drawings of the horse and those of other projects he was working on. She reviewed his thoughts on anatomy, painting, sculpture and natural phenomena. Her research expanded to include the teachers who had influenced Leonardo. Akamu also studied Iberian horse breeds, such as the Andalusian, which were favored by the Sforza stables in the late 15th century.
Two full-size casts were made of Akamu's 24-foot (7.3 m) design. One was placed at the
A smaller replica – 12 feet (3.7 m) – was placed in downtown Allentown's Community Art Park adjacent to the Baum School of Art, in honor of Charles Dent. A bronze replica – 8 feet (2.4 m) – was installed 15 September 2001 at Piazza della Libertà in
Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II
Akamu's creation of the statue on the
Akamu's grandfather, on her mother's side, was arrested in Hawaii during the internment program. He was sent to a relocation camp on Sand Island in Pearl Harbor. Suffering from diabetes upon his internment, he died of heart failure three months into his imprisonment. This family connection, combined with growing up for a time in Hawaii where in the early 1960s she fished with her father in the lochs of Pearl Harbor and the erection of a Japanese American war memorial near her home in Massa, Italy, inspired a strong connection to the memorial and its creation.
See also
- Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II
- National Sculpture Society
- Women artists
References
- ^ "The Dedication of Mount'n View" (PDF). City of Dowagiac. 2005-05-09.
- ^ Nina Akamu (2007). "Biography". Studio Equus, et al. Retrieved 15 Feb 2011.
- ^ Smithsonian (2001). "National Japanese American Memorial, (sculpture)". Inventory staff. Smithsonian. Retrieved 14 Feb 2011.
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