Jon J. Murakami

Jon J. Murakami is an enterprising free-lance artist whose work is gaining recognition and a following in the general public. He is perhaps best known for his humorous line of Local Kine greeting cards, produced and distributed by Maile Way Products. These greeting cards are set apart from those designed by other companies. With a combined use of Pidgin English, comic renderings of Asian, Polynesian, and Hawaiian faces on the front of the cards, and an emphasis on local themes and humor, Murakamiˆ¢s cards fit occasions that the local community can identify with.

Murakami was born and raised on Oahu, Hawaii and a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. As an UHM student, he drew a daily comic strip for the Ka Leo O Hawaii, the campus newspaper, entitled The University of Diverse City.

In addition to his greeting cards, Murakami is assisting retired UH professor Peter Coraggio on his series, The Art of the Piano Performance in Illustrated Form which is published in Japan, Korea, and the United States. These books are instructional guides, in the form of comic books, based on Coraggio's teachings of how to play the piano.

He is an active member with Cartoonists Across America & the World, founded by his friend and artist, Phil Yeh. Murakami had aided Yeh with various murals across the nation and worked together on various comic books promoting literacy, anti-smoking, arts, & music. Together they produced a children's storybook called The Winged Tiger and the Dragons of Hawaii.

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