31st Annual Nihon Machi Street Fair Poster
The Dragon Grasping the Pearl From A Tumultuous Sea

Actually, this is my 30th poster with the street fair. I missed out on doing the fifth annual poster in 1978. This is a retake from the 2nd Annual Poster. The Dragon Grasping the Pearl From A Tumultuous Sea. I've been using the themes from my old posters and retro'ing it to how I would do it thirty-one years later. Only I'm older and wiser.

From this year (2004) and on, we will no longer use the screenprinting method to print the street fair poster. It's just plain too labor intensive, no room to set up, it's harder to find the material for the process due to technological developments and it's been tough to find volunteers to help with the printing. Stronger thoughts of phasing myself out of doing this annual poster went through my mind as I was putting this together. I feel I've just been doing this too long and the original people from the street fair are no longer around. The feeling is no longer there or I am just much more mature nowadays.

Doing the poster this time in pure digital is pretty cool though and opens up an entirely new avenue for my poster design. Armed with an endless pallet of colors and effects in photoshop, I can now do so many things versus the restrictions of the screenprinting method.

It has been a labor of love doing this poster every year and it's hard to just let it go. It's the most consistent thing I've done with any of my artworks. But as a traveler on an endless journey of life, I must move on.

with love and labor,

Leland Wong
July 12, 2004

It's official, I have formally retired from doing the street fair poster. This is the last poster.
October 2004

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