aka tomolennon is a self-taught visual artist, poet, and musician.

Art

Nagamoto's early work was often focused on urban figurative painting. His series of life-sized figurative portraits of dreaming girls entitled "Sleeping Beauty" was exhibited at Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in 2007. His artwork was often created in collaboration with accomplished fashion industry artists, photographers, makeup artists, hairstylists, and fashion designers. His first photography exhibition "Universe" continued in this fashion with photographic media. In large scale photographs, Nagamoto created portraits of the all encompassing dreams of youth, idealization and melancholy. In 2008, Nagamoto started a new technique for his compositions; the use of ball-point pen and parchment. This style of art gained him critical success when he was featured on Bravo television in Star Portraits for his portrait of Canadian actor and icon

Gordon Pinsent Gordon Edward Pinsent (born July 12, 1930) is a Canadian actor, writer, director, and singer. He is known for his roles in numerous productions, including ''Away from Her'', ''The Rowdyman'', ''John and the Missus'', ''A Gift to Last'', '' Due So ...

Poetry

As a visual artist as well as poet, Nagamoto often creates artwork featuring quotations and

Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

. "Hitch-Haiku" is a series of selected Haiku masters from both the East and West, ancient and modern, include 17th century's first great master

Matsuo Bashō born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest ma ...

and the beat icons

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

and

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

. In 2008, he self-published a poetry/illustration book entitled "Bittersweet Hotel". His theatrical poetry reading performance premiered in Osaka, Japan. His series "Life Lessons" is a project that aims to bridge the growing gap between the visual arts and literature by creating an artist book featuring hand-drawn portraits of historical icons past and present with their famous quotes. Currently running over 25 episodes (as of May 2012), Life Lessons in the Japanese edition was made into a magazine series which has been continuously published in Bits magazine, a Japanese cultural magazine published in Toronto, since 2009.

Work with musicians

He often works and collaborates with musicians. He co-organized a

Shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...

(Japanese chess) performance event for girl punk legends

Shonen Knife Shonen Knife is a Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka in 1981. Influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, the Beach Boys, and early punk rock bands such as the Ramones, the band crafts stripped-down songs with simple yet unconventional lyr ...

at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, in 2003. He directed a promotion video for "T-dog's theme" (2009) and design CD cover "JAfro" (2012) for his jazz pianist friend in New York, Toru Dodo. As art director, he contributed a charity compilation album for victims of Japan earthquake entitled "MapleLeaf RisingSun" (2012) which was produced by Canadian music producer and bassist

George Koller George Koller (born December 9, 1958) is a Canadian bassist who has played free jazz, folk music, world music, and world fusion. Career Koller has worked with Bruce Cockburn, William Beauvais, Holly Cole, Peter Gabriel, Graeme Kirkland, Lore ...

and George Rondina of

Number 9 Audio Group Number 9 Audio Group is a recording studio located in the Cabbagetown area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 222 Gerrard Street East. Number 9 produced the World Jazz For Haiti charity album in 2010, appeared on Much Music's DISBAND in 2008, and rec ...

. He was presented with the "Best Artist" award from ''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

'' in 2002 and ''

Eye Weekly ''Eye Weekly'' was a free weekly newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was owned by Torstar, the parent company of the ''Toronto Star'', and was published by their Star Media Group until its final issue on May 5, 2011. The following ...

'' in 2003 as one of the best local visual artists of the year. He also won Artfocus Magazine's Best in Mixed Media Award (2003) and Best in Pastel/Oil Stick Award (2000)

Other work

His work has been featured in design and set design on TV drama series '' Metropia'' ( OMNI) in 2004. His early work has been featured on cover of Canadian author

Matthew Fox Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Charlie Salinger on ''Party of Five'' (1994–2000) and Jack Shephard on the drama series ''Lost'' (2004–2010), the latter of which earned him ...

's ''Cities of Weather'' (

Cormorant Books Cormorant Books Inc is a Canadian book publishing company."Two houses under ...

Awards

Selected solo exhibitions

References

External links

Official website: http://tomolennon.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagamoto, Tomori 1973 births Living people 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 21st-century Canadian painters Japanese emigrants to Canada People from Hokkaido Japanese portrait painters 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian male artists