Morning News

Stanford University Student Uses Ancient Japanese Form to Paint Sports

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our next story about a Stanford University student is -- who is using an ancient art form to capture her subjects in black and white.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Don Knapp now with a look at the allure of the brush and the black ink.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON KNAPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drue Kataoka's passion is a demanding, 2,000-year-old Japanese art form called sumi- e.

DRUE KATAOKA, SUMI-E ARTIST: When you take the ink-loaded brush to paper and you're waiting to release the brush stroke, you know that it is final when -- the ink is indelible; you can't remove or take back anything.

KNAPP: Kataoka saw her first sumi-e landscapes in a Tokyo museum when she was five years old and earned her master's signature stamp at the age of 17.

KATAOKA: The rowers are abstracted into their most essential forms and are completely synchronized in their movements.

KNAPP: You're not likely to find a traditional landscape in Kataoka's portfolio. She'd rather paint sports.

KATAOKA: What I was thinking about in this painting is the explosion of women in sports and what a positive thing that has been for all of us.

Every time I'm painting a subject, I search for the underlying kinships, the swish of the brush, the swish of the hoop, the crack of the bat, the wailing gesture of a jazzman's horn.

KNAPP: Kataoka loves music and loves to paint anything with music in it, but it was the sounds of history that inspired her painting of Stanford's commemorative poster of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

KATAOKA: I tried to distill sounds just beneath the black ink and think about the rhythm of the tired feet marching towards freedom, the layered voices of call and response.

KNAPP: Long before the brush meets the paper, Kataoka studies her subjects. Stanford basketball star Kate Starbird:

KATAOKA: I just tried to watch her, the reverse lay-up, over and over again and then tried to create the brush strokes that had that same kind of motion and release and dynamism to them.

TARA VANDERVEER, STANFORD WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACH: When people look at, like, a Kate Starbird, and that was the move that she made, and they remember it.

KNAPP: Kataoka's commemorative posters have raised money for athletic scholarships and charities. At 21, this master sumi-e artist has her eyes on history and leaving her artistic footprint in brushed black ink.

Don Knapp, CNN, Stanford, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That's some pretty work.

HEMMER: Very nice stuff.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com