Meet the Artist: Bingham Bouwhuis

Painting Akio Morita

Bingham's hobbies never stay the same for long.

Golf, running, training for his next race.. there's always something new. He just likes trying things. Art fits right in. It calms his mind, and he loves the moment a piece finally comes together.

So it makes sense that he's painting a man who walked away from the expected path to try something new.

Akio Morita was born in 1921 in Japan, the oldest son of a family that had been brewing sake for generations. He was supposed to take over the family business. Instead, he fell in love with electronics.

In 1946, right after the war, he and his partner Masaru Ibuka started a small electronics company in a bombed-out department store in Tokyo. A few years later, they renamed it Sony.

Back then, "Made in Japan" meant cheap. Morita was set on changing that. Early on, a big American company offered to buy a huge order of Sony's radios, as long as they could put their own name on them. Morita turned it down. He wanted the Sony name on everything they made.

Then in 1979, Ibuka wanted something he could listen to music on during long flights. Plenty of people inside the company doubted a tape player that couldn't even record. Morita pushed it through anyway.

It was called the Walkman.

All of a sudden, music wasn't something you listened to at home. It went with you. On the bus, on a walk, on a run. Every pair of earbuds you see on a jogger today traces back to that little cassette player.

For a guy who's always training for his next race, that's a pretty good subject to spend some time with.

Builders + Titans is Part 3 of Influencers Over Time, a five-part exhibition inspired by TIME's 100 most influential people of the 20th century. 18 local Utah artists. 20 portraits of the people who shaped the modern world we live inside every day. Every portrait comes with its own audio story, and there are treats to grab as you wander.

🗓️ October 23–25

📍 The Studio, 4750 W 800 N, West Point, Utah

Admission is free!