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SUNDAY DRAWING IN MANOA
Figure Drawing


ABOUT

     Sunday Drawing in Manoa is the informal name of a figure drawing class at the University of Hawaii at Manoa art building, 3rd floor, room 323.  While not an official class of the University, Sunday Drawing in Manoa has had permission to use the facilities year round since its start over 40 years ago.

    NOTE ON ENTERING THE ART BUILDING! The facility may be accessed through the elevator or the stairwell on the ewa side of the building.  This  stairwell will be open no later than 8:30 am on class days.  Please be sure that the door is fully closed once you've entered the stairwell.

         The longevity of the class is all thanks to artist Yoko Momota Radke, who ran it from the mid/late 1980's, up until 2008.  Yoko was born in Kyushu Japan and was brought up in Manchuria.  After World War 2 she returned to Japan with her family and there met her husband, Mark Radke, in Tokyo.  The couple was married in 1958.  After living in and visiting several places around the world throughout the years, Yoko and Mark finally settled in Hawaii in 1977.

       Always having a passion for the arts, Yoko studied drawing and painting for years with Professor Kenneth Bushnell at the University of Hawaii and with the late Joseph Feher at the Honolulu Academy of Arts (now the Honolulu Museum of Art).  Along with her drawing and painting abilities, Yoko is also an accomplished marksman, Ikebana practitioner and performer of the Japanese koto.

       Yoko has had solo exhibits at the Honolulu Academy Arts, Queen Emma Gallery,

Linekona Art Center, Gallery on the Pali, Koa Gallery at Kapiolani Community College, as well as participating in several group shows.

 

       An unsung leader in the art community, along with Sunday Drawing in Manoa, Yoko also ran a portrait painting workshop at Paki Hale and the Linekoa Art Center for several years.   Thanks to her dedication, Yoko has helped countless artists to not only improve their skills, but to also pursue their artistic goals. While Scott had been assisting Yoko run Sunday Drawing for many years, in 2008 she asked him to formally take over the class, for health reasons.  However, she continued to attend the class regularly until her health further declined, making it physically impossible to for her to participate  Sadly, Yoko passed away just shy of her 90th birthday back on January 24, 2018.

     In honor of Yoko's dedication to the arts, which would not have been possible without the support of her husband Mark, also a skilled craftsman and avid photographer, their nephew Greg Cook, along with Sunday Drawing in Manoa, established annual awards in their name.  Every year, at the end of UH's Spring Semester, the Yoko and Mark Radke Award for Excellence in Drawing and Painting, and the Yoko and Mark Radke Award for Excellence in Photography, are given to select undergraduate art majors, chosen by the faculty of UH's art department.

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