((((( Biography ))))) .................................................................................................................................................................... In 1974, I was born in Tokyo, Japan. Since childhood, I have chance to touch with art because there are a lot of artists in my family. And I have experienced a lot of art by their influence. I was also greatly influenced by my elder brother in animation and punk rock. When I was a child, I started scribbling while watching animation on TV. I experienced punk rock when I was a junior high school student. Punk rock became the main influence of my adolescent years, and I appreciated the humor and irony behind their serious images. In a university art history class, I discovered John Wilett Heartfield, a German Photomontage artist of the 1920's and his artwork, which was a communist agitation poster. I also discovered the works of Suehiro Maruo, a cartoon artist, which illustrates Edogawa Alanpo's horror literature. I was deeply influenced by his bizarre images. I also discovered an art book of Frank Kozik, a silk-screen-printing artist in San Francisco, which sparked my first interest in printmaking. I came to San Francisco in the summer of 1997. I enrolled in the Academy of Art College to develop my drawing and printing skills. I graduated the college on Spring 2001. .................................................................................................................................................................... ((((( Artist Statement ))))) .................................................................................................................................................................... ((( kids in the gloomy forest ))) In this series of works, I portray scene of my mind of insecurity and irritation. I must be living in content, happily life, somehow I feel indefinable uneasiness and irritation. And find myself who, is seized with insecurity, apathetic, dispirited, cannot believe anything, and cannot come out of my core shell. There is a weak, lonesome heart in the base and it is never gone. I want you to feel presentiment or something through these works. Find yourself the fire bell, which is lurking in your mind, and become chance to you to regaze at your uneasiness that you just found. A story is produced with the combination of the variety of "symbols". The story is very individual but social as well. The story is kaleidoscopic by the way of interpretation on the "symbol" spectators see, and my art works will serve as a mirror that projects the anxiety that they hold. Children appear in this series of works. Children's physical immaturity remind us of their weakness and sexual neutrality, but it is contrary to it, they in growth process have a strong vitality. Such children symbolize the complicated and uncertain heart. Moreover, the weird creatures and the queer space obtained with improbable color scheme in the real life will associate the mystical world of heart. >>>back to gallery