Hon. William M. Marutani
 

Here is a recent portrait that will be formally unveiled in City Hall in Philadelphia, this Monday, June 7th, 2004. It was commissioned by the Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley to honor the first Pennsylvania judge of Asian American descent. Fortunately, this judge is still alive and with us. I hope to see him again at the unveiling. His identity:

William M. Marutani

Former Judge, Court of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania
Member, Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

The portrait is oil on linen, and is 36 inches by 30 inches in size.

It has been a real treat to get to know this soft-spoken and honorable gentleman who prefers me to call him simply "Bill". He has had quite an interesting life. Born in Washington State, he and his family were among those numerous U.S. civilians of Japanese descent who were wrongfully interned and relocated during World War II. In 1946, after being released, he visited a cousin who was a victim of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, Japan. I was spellbound by his vivid recounting of the atrocities and after-effects of the nuclear annihilation of a once great city. He described to me the true meaning of a "Silent Spring". There was not a single bird alive to sing for the dead for a hundred or so miles. I was moved by the gravity of his message, and in all fairness we mostly talked about happier moments in life, and especially what it is to be an American and to be proud of it.

I tried to get a sense of his wisdom and intellect to shine through in the portrait. He willingly sat for me to paint him from life on several occasions. I also worked with some photographic references derived from my digital camera. I took the liberty of fitting him into his judicial robe in the painting. He originally wore a suit of traditional Japanese design and textile which was very appealing, but we decided it was more important to make him appear more as a judge. The positive experience of painting this great man was worth all the small challenges and adjustments that were presented along the way.

Garth

Garth, I am in awe, great charismatic portrait.
Not only the features are beautifully painted, but the composition is monumental. I love the colour of the background, similar to the colour of the flesh. The colour scheme is simple and very striking.
Ilaria

Garth, this is another outstanding portrait. I love the hard edge of the black robe against that pale warm value. And thanks for including those closeups; interlaced fingers can be a nightmare, but I can't remember ever seeing anything better than this.

One word comes to mind: Wow.

Garth,

I really love this painting. The first thing that caught my eye is the cast shadows on the face, particularly the one to our left of his nose and around the glasses, it has a very natural look. Also, great job on the hands. This is my favorite of yours.

I think I can see him breathing!! This is drawing me back to take another look. The color is so realistic. Beautiful hands. Some day, might I approach such beautiful work in my own paintings???!!

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang, that has to be one of the best pair of hands I've seen painted.

Garth

You have done it again. But I think that with this judge you have managed to express more of his personality because you have actually met him.

His hands seems to express the jin yang energy, with the right hand fingers holding tight and the lefts opening. Also his face is full of energy, especially his mouth.

I guess that the color choice is to harmonize with your other portraits in that room. If it is the same location?

The main contrast of the two colors with the blue/black and several different warm ochers works well. Is this some sort of favorite choice of color?

Allan

I love the color scheme! The painting as usual is rendered great! :thumbsup:

Garth,

Wonderful work. I can feel the warmth of the light on his face.

You have handled the both the form shadows and the cast shadows so masterfully. Their edges and transitions are just excellent.

Garth,
Every single element of this painting is masterful - composition, color., etc. I love that you are not afraid to use color and breathe life into the portrait.

Garth, Just beautiful. Congratulations! Just love the color scheme and overall ambiance of it.. Well done.

Thanks Everyone!
 

I thought this one would never get noticed. Yet another Judge!? I go away for several hours and WOW! My email suggested just one response. Thanks, let me attempt to respond in kind, this is more than I expected.

Ilaria: Thanks, I vaguely remember my grandmother suggesting this color scheme when I was about five years old and using Crayola crayons. Maybe this has subliminally stuck with me these past forty-one years, I don't know? In reality Judge Marutani was sitting in front of windows with white venetian blinds; not very interesting I thought.

Linda: Thanks, I actually was daunted by those hands. They sat unfinished for a long time. Finally I just bit the bullet and everything seemed to pull together in a few hours like magic. The cast shadow to the left of the wristwatch is one I made up to accomodate the puffy robe sleeves. The choice of the interlaced fingers gesture was very spontaneous. It was a quick fleeting gesture caught in a digital snapshot. It just felt right.

Michele: WOW Thanks!

Mike: Thanks! The seeming natural quality to the cast shadows are due to the fact that they are mostly derived from a single photo with all of this information taken early on a December morning with a low raking sun. When I came back to having him sit the following March, it was impossible to acheive this lighting effect again.

Patricia: Thanks, (and of course you will, why not!).

Jimmy: Thaaaaaaaannnnks! Like I said to Linda above, I guess I was just lucky to get a great reference photo with this magical lighting.

Allan: Thanks, and I think you have a good point! It seemed much more natural and intuitive to paint a living Judge for once. I like your interpretation of the hands' energy. I sensed energy in them too, when I saw them in action. I don't know why I settled on this color scheme, but originally it was quite a bit more intense, if not fluorescent. It needed a lot of toning down, and these earth colors seemed much more livable. I don't yet know precisely where this will hang in City Hall (generally I need to know this, but here no one could tell me), so the color scheme is not particularly going to relate to other paintings, except they almost certainly all will have a lot of black as a theme!

Elizabeth: Thanks, like I just said, this color scheme went though some evolution along the way.

Chris: Thanks. Thanks! The digital reference picture on a December morning was too cool in overall color effect for my taste, so I manually interpolated the colors to warm them up.

Jane: Thanks! Just too much! I am more afraid of color than you may think, but in this case I could discern plenty of distinction in colors from the reference from the beginning, so this just naturally fell into place for me.

Josef: Thanks! Being in the presence of this Judge, I could really sense the warmth of his personality.

Best to you all,

Garth

Garth -

Just wanted to add my kudos here. He's alive with personality. Bet he'll be a standout among all those other judges! Beautiful.

Dear Garth:

I saw this portrait last night after coming home from a 6 hour train trip, and despite the fatigue was absolutely riveted to the screen of my computer. Behind the calm exterior of that face exists a strength and inner peace I felt at every level (except a literary one, being too inept to correctly put it into words). You are one of the few artists who can paint below the surface.

I'm going back for another look now.

I have to second what Scott said so well. Inner peace and strength, his face shows it all. The skin tones in his face are worth studying at length, I particularly like his mouth. In this case you can not say that this portrait is of a man with "something wrong with his mouth"!

Jean

Garth,

You have managed an exquisite painting from an area which I would find hard to mine. The color combination of the background is very evocative of Asian art, vermilion and gold, understated but effective.

Dear Terri, Scott, Jean, and Sharon,

Thank you all so much for your kind praise.

Scott, now I am somehow the one feeling inept without the proper thank-you.

With appreciation,

Garth

Garth,
I don't think I could add any more without repeating what has already been expressed here. Well deserved praise indeed. I do hope you will let us all know how the unveiling goes on Monday!

Thank you so much Heidi, I will.

Garth

How the Unveiling Went.
 

Dear Heidi,

It was a splendid affair. There were perhaps a couple hundred in attendance in Courtroom 653 in City Hall, in Philadelphia. Several prominent Asian American Judges spoke. Mayor Street had a few kind words too. I heard a number of positive comments to the effect that the portrait captured the Judge's personality. The Judge's son-in-law added that the stern look in the portrait recalls a time when he was dating the Judge's daughter and returned the family car without gas in the tank!

Following the Ceremony, was a sumptuous reception downstairs within City Hall's tower, in Conversation Hall. There was a lot of yummy good food and a number of photo opps too. I enlisted the Judge's grandson to help distribute a hundred photo business cards featuring the Judge's portrait (this made a good keepsake souvenir for everyone).

When asked if I was proud of my accomplishment in this portrait, I responded that my thoughts were more along the lines of pride of Judge Marutani as a exemplary example of an American citizen. For all he has done to champion human rights and civil rights, it makes me wonder how pale my own life accomplishments are in his shadow.

The following is a short biography of the Judge from the program:

THE HONORABLE WILLIAM M. MARUTANI

The Honorable William M. Marutani served as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County from 1975 to 1986. When appointed to the bench in 1975, Judge Marutani became the first Asian American outside of the Pacific Coast states to preside as a judge of general jurisdiction. Judge Marutani was later elected to a full ten-year term in 1977. He issued the decision requiring the all-boys Central High School to admit female students in 1983.

In 1942, Judge Marutani, a second-generation Japanese American, served six months in an American internment camp following the Pearl Harbor attack. Later during the war, he served in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service (MIS).

As an attorney, Judge Marutani participated in the civil rights drives in the South and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington for the Japanese American Citizens League. From 1960 to 1970, he also served as a volunteer civil rights lawyer in cases involving the desegregation of schools and the promotion of voter registration drives in Mississippi. In 1967, Judge Marutani appeared on argument in Loving v. Virginia, a seminal case which struck down anti-miscegenation laws in 17 states.

Judge Marutani has also served on numerous civic and charitable boards and commissions. Most notably, in 1981 he was appointed to the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians by President Jimmy Carter. The Commission concluded that the internment of Japanese Americans was the unjust result of racism, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership.


Garth

Congratulations, Garth! Sounds like the event was a well deserved honor for both you and the judge.

Nice frame, by the way. Where do you get them? It looks like there's a plaque or tag across the bottom with information about the subject and artist on it., too Can you tell us where you got that made?

Congratulations on a well received portrait. Hopefully more will follow.

Mark Palermo, Framemaker and Gilder, 215 848-7887
 

Dear Michele and Marvin, thanks so much!

Michele: Mark Palermo is the frame maker. He works just two blocks from me here in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. He does everything himself to the highest standards, from scratch, and to any custom specification. He mills the frame moulding profile, gessoes it, applies the red or yellow clay bole ground which then gets polished to a mirror finish, and finally water gilds the frame with the artist's choice of gold leaf (genuine). The subtle "bamboo" effect is due to the necessity of slightly overlapping each sheet of gold, and this is how one can tell a real gold frame from an imitation. A frame of this size and finish may run about $1,000.00, which I think is quite reasonable, all things considered. This frame uses Moon Gold which is somewhat more silvery in color than 23 karat gold. Mark Palermo is very highly regarded in his field here in Philadelphia. His studio can be reached at 215 848-7887.

I did not get a good look at the label at the bottom of the frame; it is something the portrait committee acquired and applied themselves. They did ask me at one point where to get such a label but I did not know, but evidently they solved their problem on their own.

Marvin: Thanks for the good wishes. One never knows if this might lead to another portrait or not, but word of mouth seems to be the best system of advertisement going. I wish you many commissions to come, too.

Garth