SOUTH COUNTY "POT SHOTS"

Morgan Hill Artist Calls Work "Real Photoism"

If a photograph is reality and a painting a figment of the imagination, a
viewer might wonder what to call a work of art that seems to combine the
mediums.

Painter / photographer Jean Hanamoto offers an answer in an exhibition of
computer-manipulated photographs of marijuana plants that simulate soothing
pastel watercolors, bold oils and evocative pen-and-pencil sketches.

"Some painters practice photo realism. I do real photoism," said Hanamoto,
laughing at the word she's coined.

Hanamoto was struck by the beauty of the plants grown by members of a
medicinal marijuana cooperative that supports 200 members who use cannabis
to treat, among other things, cancer, AIDS, multiple scleroses and
epilepsy. Hanamoto's husband, George, who was diagnosed with glaucoma, uses
the plant to relieve pressure on his eyes.

"The cooperative, Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, is the only
legal medicinal marijuana garden in California. We don't buy and sell, but
grow and give," Hanamoto said of the small plot of about 60 marijuana
plants tucked away in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The marijuana plant, Hanamoto said, "is a graceful and beautiful hero. In
all its different stages - leaf, bud and harvest - it's a joy to the artist
in me."

She spent 50 to 60 hours creating a marijuana plant Christmas tree
decorated with cancer awareness pins, AIDS ribbons, remembrance wreaths and
spheres that represent WAMM. All the details were created by computer.

Exhibition starts Friday, Nov. 20, 1998, at Eclectix, an art/gift shop at
1319 Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz, CA, and has been held over indefinately.
It can also be seen at

http://www.garlic.com/~artworks/marijuana_art/

Checked-by: Richard Lake