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While autumn, as a season, is often overlooked as the mere transition between summer and winter, many people love the crisp, cold weather it brings with it, and the sense of the transition as leaves turn gold and crimson and fall in crunchy piles to the ground. It is a season of colourful motion and change, and, although it anticipates the coldness and bleakness of winter ahead, it often stays warm even through the rain cloud and overcast sky.
Japanese style art often depicts the seasons, as it is often focused on change, and connection. To the Japanese, the seasons in themselves are as important as their daily consequences, summer is not just the warm months and time for holidays. Winter is not just the time period when it snows and is cold outside. The seasons in Japanese art often take on a life of their own, and are part of the earth and the way it cycles. This means that often seasonal personifications in this type of art are breathtakingly beautiful, and this pristine quality has greatly influenced our modern style and popular culture in recent times.
This graphic, called Autumn, is formed in what appear to be two main different parts. The first is an oblong sphere of black with very light white pin stripes that slash through it at an angle. Inside this black oval is a red rising sun with black stripes on which a figure of a child with a single tuft of hair and a tear in his eye are superimposed. The second main part is the cloud that obscures the upper portion of the squashed globe - it is the same colour and pattern, but it is a distinct cumulus rain cloud that seems to be hovering right at the top of the graphic, interconnected with the shape below. From the side of the cloud, the spout of a faucet protrudes into the void, dripping just one drop of water into the air. These images are interesting and provoke a series of thoughts about why autumn might involve a sad child, and how odd it is to think that a cloud is, basically, one big water spout, pouring its life giving rain down upon the earth.
Another cool thing about this graphic is the fact that the entire figure has a fourfold shadow, each of which take a different colour. From front to back, the colours of the objects move from black to pink to olive to lime, making this an incredibly colourful design, and mimicking the change of colour that happens as summer gives way to fall.
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