Greatest Resource.
It's boring only to exist.
I made up my mind to keep painting as the resource till I will die.
Today I somehow reminded these words.
I wrote down these words when I was in a high school.
Sometimes I feel as if life would be a game to make good use of one's time.
For I think that the reason ancient human beings tried to do a lot of things was because they had too much time on their hands.
In fact children always move around. They must be boring.
To be boring means to have energies.
So all things like arts, cooking, sports, et cetra, were created to kill time at first, I think.
Then people addicted to them brought those resources up to be cultures.
Thought those things one day.
But I couldn't remember why I thought these things and wrote down.
I think…maybe I had too much time to think.
Anyway I have hoped to spend my time usefully since I was so young.
Well, what can I do today?
- 2007/11/03
- Midnight Talking
Small idleness of mind.
I'm doing workout everyday not in training gym, but in my room.
Rope skipping is one of the menus.
The rain prevents me from jumping today, think that, looking out of window.
I found a person who was running silently, putting on a hooded jacket.
Such my “small idleness of mind” might cause me a big defeat someday.
I jumped twice than usual, reflecting on myself.
- 2007/07/18
- Midnight Talking
The Disguise.
I'm sometimes so gratified with a natural fact that strangers have their own lives like me at where I know nothing about.
This world is covered with a lot of “unknown.”
Think of that, and dullness arise from my mind is only a disguise.
- 2007/06/21
- Midnight Talking
Things just ordinary…
These days I feel like painting things just ordinary .
I want to draw “atmosphere of things.”
I'm attracted to work in which the atmosphere tells its own tale.
I wonder that is because I've been mature, or just my mood…
Anyway feeling like this is new to me, and I enjoy this mood.
- 2007/04/20
- Midnight Talking
Songs for Farewell
I like songs for farewell.
Feel that there're a lot of masterpieces in songs about it.
Farewell to sweetheart and friends. Separating or parting.
Many songs for farewell send me.
And at the same time I feel like the music set creativity within me working.
I find myself in a spirit in which I dive into the depth of my heart.
It's sure that there's creativity derives from loneliness or solitariness.
- 2007/03/08
- Midnight Talking
Zero-Information.
Came across a movie on TV midnight.
I had no information about the movie.
Taking a vacant glance at the screen for a while, I found it was so exciting.
That kind of encounter might be the best for me, I thought.
I have never heard its title and plot.
So to speak, it's a condition of zero-information.
It's unexpectedly difficult to see a movie with a flat mind,
……but it's one of my ideal.
By chance, or fortuitously coming across an exciting thing.
That's a way to enjoy things just like pleasure of travel.
- 2007/03/08
- Midnight Talking
If I had a Time Machine...
Thought when I was cooking rice.
That the very first person had done it was very clever.
I wonder how had he (or she) found a way to thresh through to boil.
How long had it taken to discover the way to cook hot rice?
I often imagine things like that. The first person had eaten natto, for example.
We've already known natto is a food, so we can eat natto without hesitations.
But it must have been a great adventure for the first person.
I could imagine that he (or she) had frustration to touch the thing first.
Whether can it be eaten, or not? This is the very beginning.
I'd like to see that moment, if I had a time machine.
This image is from my San Francisco days.
That the very first person had done it was very clever.
I wonder how had he (or she) found a way to thresh through to boil.
How long had it taken to discover the way to cook hot rice?
I often imagine things like that. The first person had eaten natto, for example.
We've already known natto is a food, so we can eat natto without hesitations.
But it must have been a great adventure for the first person.
I could imagine that he (or she) had frustration to touch the thing first.
Whether can it be eaten, or not? This is the very beginning.
I'd like to see that moment, if I had a time machine.
This image is from my San Francisco days.
- 2007/03/06
- Midnight Talking
77
By the way, I have a kind of attachment to the numbers like "77" or "7."
I don't particularly like the numbers and think they're my lucky number.
Perhaps because I was born in '77, maybe.
Actually, the more years go by, the more I come to be attached to the number.
Now I remember that I had named my 7th solo show "AMULET SEVEN."
I seem to have used the number "7" as a kind of sign.
I've found it just now.
By the way today's article is the 77th.
Breathing deeply with the number.
- 2007/03/05
- Midnight Talking
Identifying the End.
We might think vaguely "things are never-ending."
We know there's no never-ending in this world, but we sometimes imagine that.
Today, tomorrow, or life.
Everything in this world has its end.
That's all right because that's the way the world is.
But we need to understand it.
Nothing is achieved without concentration.
- 2007/03/01
- Midnight Talking
Parts of the Universe.
A world in one person's mind is more broad than one imagines.
It might be commonly said, that as if the world in a person is a kind of universe.
From the birth to the present. From unforgettable, deep emotion to insignificant trauma.
All pieces like these emotions and feelings consist the one's universe as the parts.
I often realize things like that in a matter of seconds.
You might not get what I mean, but in fact I'm feeling this way.
Perhaps I have more things I can't express than things I grasp.
That's why many significant things couldn't be explained with convenient and simple words.
- 2007/02/27
- Midnight Talking
Casual Scenes.
Sometimes I release a shutter, being fascinated with shades of casual scenes.
This image is one of these scenes shot at Figueres in Spain when I had traveled alone there.
At that day I had run around strange localities rumbly with my scooter.
Remember that I had left Dali Theatre and Museum quickly because scenes of the town had attracted me more than the museum.
The house was beautiful, but I haven't known what the house is yet.
- 2007/02/22
- Midnight Talking
A sponge at a bookstore.
Spent for a while at a bookstore yesterday.
Reaching for the bookshelves, and that reminded me of my schools days.
I would become a sponge who greedily sucks knowledge in the books when I stopped at a bookstore after school.
After examining many books thoroughly, I would buy just a book because I had to pinch pennies.
Once I had been a bookstore for six hours to search books.
My optic nerve had been exquisite as much as possible to learn the pages.
Though I had been poor, I liked a spirit like that.
Sometimes it's funny to be devoted, but sometimes it's cool to be strain.
After all, I found myself had been there for two hours.
Enjoy cherry blossoms a little earlier.
Reaching for the bookshelves, and that reminded me of my schools days.
I would become a sponge who greedily sucks knowledge in the books when I stopped at a bookstore after school.
After examining many books thoroughly, I would buy just a book because I had to pinch pennies.
Once I had been a bookstore for six hours to search books.
My optic nerve had been exquisite as much as possible to learn the pages.
Though I had been poor, I liked a spirit like that.
Sometimes it's funny to be devoted, but sometimes it's cool to be strain.
After all, I found myself had been there for two hours.
Enjoy cherry blossoms a little earlier.
- 2007/02/18
- Midnight Talking
Desires
Come to think of it, I find I haven't bought anything except for necessaries for years.
I can't imagine what I want to buy.
For me a desire for shopping is a measure of concentration.
There are no materialistic desires in my mind when I think of art.
The image is from Yosuke Ueno's 5th solo show.
I can't imagine what I want to buy.
For me a desire for shopping is a measure of concentration.
There are no materialistic desires in my mind when I think of art.
The image is from Yosuke Ueno's 5th solo show.
- 2007/02/16
- Midnight Talking
Relation of Customizing
When I was a child, I named my bicycle.
It was one of the easiest ways of customization for me to name things belonged to me.
“To custom” means, "to have something to do with the object.”
And the relationship brings an attachment or a love.
A Fox in Le Petit Prince refuses to make friends with the Prince.
Because the Fox knows that a farewell must be brought to them.
Today, I sent my artworks to L.A for a show.
An artist and its artworks.
That is very the relation of customizing.
- 2007/02/12
- Midnight Talking
Good Chemistry.
Sometimes materials "bring out my capabilities."
Materials have each characters and there is even chemistry between things and people.
What it means to be right chemistry?
That is, so to speak, to have a relationship in which a person and a thing could bring out their capabilities from each other.
We've already known important things.
But we've sometimes forgotten them because they're too usual.
Piece of Universal Peace at MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART TOKYO.
Materials have each characters and there is even chemistry between things and people.
What it means to be right chemistry?
That is, so to speak, to have a relationship in which a person and a thing could bring out their capabilities from each other.
We've already known important things.
But we've sometimes forgotten them because they're too usual.
Piece of Universal Peace at MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART TOKYO.
- 2007/02/08
- Midnight Talking
Price for possibilities.
Went to an art material shop.
I really love to look at painting tools and feel so excited, looking them.
Want to try all the tools around the shop, and even want “to live there.”
Of course I couldn't live there, so I simulate using the tools in my mind instead of living there.
The most exciting and delightful time for me.
When I get some of the tools, I'm so gratified that I could work instant at the shop.
It's often said that “Japanese art materials are expensive.”
I know that's true but, I think that I could get more pleasures and possibilities than the prices.
A tool is a device to bring out possibilities.
I believe that it's wrong for creators to be stingy about the tools.
- 2007/02/04
- Midnight Talking
Slow Life
I've often heard the words "slow life."
The important is not the speed, but the rhythm.
Amulet Seven in Shimono-seki Museum
- 2007/02/02
- Midnight Talking
Own feeling time
Was it only me, who felt this January so long?
Nevertheless every day was full and enjoyable in this month, I felt it very long.
I feel curious about this feeling.
It's not time which clocks show, but time which people have individually on their own.
And I named it "own feeling time.”
This "own feeling time" is actually curious.
Generally speaking, it's said that people feel the time longer than usually when they have something distasteful and hard.
And on the contrary, they could feel the time faster when they enjoy.
But everyone know that it's not necessarily so.
There sometimes is time when we feel our time so longer, enjoying things.
I have many wonders about this "own feeling time."
I've enjoyed thinking about this subject for a long time.
And I haven't got the specific answer yet, so I will enjoy it more from now on.
Nevertheless every day was full and enjoyable in this month, I felt it very long.
I feel curious about this feeling.
It's not time which clocks show, but time which people have individually on their own.
And I named it "own feeling time.”
This "own feeling time" is actually curious.
Generally speaking, it's said that people feel the time longer than usually when they have something distasteful and hard.
And on the contrary, they could feel the time faster when they enjoy.
But everyone know that it's not necessarily so.
There sometimes is time when we feel our time so longer, enjoying things.
I have many wonders about this "own feeling time."
I've enjoyed thinking about this subject for a long time.
And I haven't got the specific answer yet, so I will enjoy it more from now on.
- 2007/02/02
- Midnight Talking
0.1 / 100
Even if I conceive 100 things, in fact I could realize only 0.1 of the 100 ideas.
I am a man of many different kinds of thoughts.
I really enjoy wondering things.
This is an ordinary habit, but I've come to enjoy it more and more as the years go by.
An amusement needs to me is “conversation with others.”
It's an amusement to realize what I imagine in my mind by painting, writing, and talking.
But it's impossible to put out all what I think.
As soon as I am just about to output one idea, I've got another idea.
So I could output at least the 0.1, if I imagine 100 ideas.
The photo is a scene from opening party of my solo show named “JAPPOLO.” (Santa Monica, CA/ 2006)
I am a man of many different kinds of thoughts.
I really enjoy wondering things.
This is an ordinary habit, but I've come to enjoy it more and more as the years go by.
An amusement needs to me is “conversation with others.”
It's an amusement to realize what I imagine in my mind by painting, writing, and talking.
But it's impossible to put out all what I think.
As soon as I am just about to output one idea, I've got another idea.
So I could output at least the 0.1, if I imagine 100 ideas.
The photo is a scene from opening party of my solo show named “JAPPOLO.” (Santa Monica, CA/ 2006)
- 2007/01/29
- Midnight Talking
Collaboration
Today I walked around, wondering "what an ideal collaboration is?"
Collaborations are often explained with multiplications such as "A×B."
But that is only a simple explanation, and I think that collaborations are neither only additions nor multiplications.
For in additions and multiplications, there is a rule that the bigger the figures are, the better the answers are.
But the worth of figures in not always decided by the order of numbers.
Playing card, for example.
Sometimes A=1 is stronger that K=13 in some games.
I could show my own equation and the answer, if asked to explain with figures.
That is, 1+1=1, represents simply that artist+artist=the artwork.
But this answer is too easy to walk around, I wanted to walk and think more.
"Spaghetti with eggplant," one of my favorite meal.
The eggplants are so nice, because olive oil brings out effectively the sweet of eggplants.
The relation between eggplants and olive oil is what I called the ideal collaboration.
The point is that they could have effects on each other not by adding and multiplying, but by mixing up.
There is a significance that "two different things are put together."
And each of them need abilities to find out potentials of each other.
"To find out" means, as the words show, "to find and catch the excellence from the object."
An efficient artist finds out "what he should create" in every stuff, and Newton discovered gravitation from a falling apple.
It could be said that the ideal collaboration is a kind of chemical reaction in which the artists bring out the potentials of each other.
Assimilating collaboration to food makes it easy to understand what collaboration is.
The best meal is made of stuff which have the best effects on each other.
And the same thing can be said about a collaboration of artists.
Thought about that for a while, walking around, and I felt tired.
At last I felt hungry, imagining spaghetti.
- 2007/01/28
- Midnight Talking
My notebook for breathing
I've always got pens and a notebook with me when go out.
The reason I often wear jeans with big pockets is to put the tools in.
I wind up buying them at a convenience store, if I go out without them.
For me my room is where I couldn't rest my brain because I work in my room.
So I feel so comfortable than I think, going out.
I love to look comfortably in my room at my drawings drawn with my easeful mind.
The reason I often wear jeans with big pockets is to put the tools in.
I wind up buying them at a convenience store, if I go out without them.
For me my room is where I couldn't rest my brain because I work in my room.
So I feel so comfortable than I think, going out.
I love to look comfortably in my room at my drawings drawn with my easeful mind.
- 2007/01/25
- Midnight Talking
The mood.
As a result to follow my mood, I have created one great work a year.
That is my cycle brought to me without knwoing that.
I've just started to sketch outlines since yesterday, feeling the mood.
The theme of it is "Energy of Youth."
Both the motivation and the theme are incidental result to follow the mood.
Sometimes that my attittude is mistaken to be irresponsible, but that's not.
The mood is more pure and honest than "logic."
That is my cycle brought to me without knwoing that.
I've just started to sketch outlines since yesterday, feeling the mood.
The theme of it is "Energy of Youth."
Both the motivation and the theme are incidental result to follow the mood.
Sometimes that my attittude is mistaken to be irresponsible, but that's not.
The mood is more pure and honest than "logic."
- 2007/01/24
- Midnight Talking
A form of my concentration
I often use "metaphors" as the way to grasp uncertain things.
I feel I could get the obscure outlines by giving them specific images.
What metaphor is suitable for concentration?
This is one of subjects I've been thinking over for a long time, but I haven't realized it yet.
Every works demand concentrations.
Especially in case of execution, a piece couldn't be finished in the moment when the concentrarion goes away.
So whatever could the concentration be?
I was keeping painting for twelve hours without a rest yesterday.
But there are few days a year that I could't concentrate on anything at all. I don't know why, but somehow I do nothing but wriggle then.
So I deeply wonder, what the concentrarion is? I want to liken it to something to grasp it.
I know of course, there are many things "not necessarily so."
Thought that I couldn't get the specific metaphor for the concentration because I haven't recognized it yet.
Hope I will come across the answer sometime. I enjoy having a subject like that.
I feel I could get the obscure outlines by giving them specific images.
What metaphor is suitable for concentration?
This is one of subjects I've been thinking over for a long time, but I haven't realized it yet.
Every works demand concentrations.
Especially in case of execution, a piece couldn't be finished in the moment when the concentrarion goes away.
So whatever could the concentration be?
I was keeping painting for twelve hours without a rest yesterday.
But there are few days a year that I could't concentrate on anything at all. I don't know why, but somehow I do nothing but wriggle then.
So I deeply wonder, what the concentrarion is? I want to liken it to something to grasp it.
I know of course, there are many things "not necessarily so."
Thought that I couldn't get the specific metaphor for the concentration because I haven't recognized it yet.
Hope I will come across the answer sometime. I enjoy having a subject like that.
- 2007/01/21
- Midnight Talking
The universal perspective
Many answers to this world are not always simple.
The figure of this world is multiple and manysided.
So it's not enough to have a world wide view.
We have to get a universal perspective to observe the world.
People call that "a hurdle" or "a depression" when they have only a small perspectives.
The figure of this world is multiple and manysided.
So it's not enough to have a world wide view.
We have to get a universal perspective to observe the world.
People call that "a hurdle" or "a depression" when they have only a small perspectives.
- 2007/01/20
- Midnight Talking
Resetting
Souichiro Honda, the founfer of HONDA had struk upon a great idea in the bathroom.
It's frequent that good ideas come to me when I shower.
Is it a problem of prohability, because bathrooms and showers are place we go inevitably every day?
Or are small rooms like these suitable to think?
Anyway people have their own situation where they are apt to get some ideas.
Remember that scribbles painted in classes had become to bases of my artworks when I was a student.
And that ideas flashed on me while I was working part-time always came to my works.
Bathrooms, showers, classes and part-time jobs.
It's not good for mind to be busy.
A comfortably mind always brings me to great ideas.
It's frequent that good ideas come to me when I shower.
Is it a problem of prohability, because bathrooms and showers are place we go inevitably every day?
Or are small rooms like these suitable to think?
Anyway people have their own situation where they are apt to get some ideas.
Remember that scribbles painted in classes had become to bases of my artworks when I was a student.
And that ideas flashed on me while I was working part-time always came to my works.
Bathrooms, showers, classes and part-time jobs.
It's not good for mind to be busy.
A comfortably mind always brings me to great ideas.
- 2007/01/19
- Midnight Talking
A philospher without doing anything.
People sending e-mails with mobile phones, reading, writing, listening to music, talking to the others, sleeping, and doing nothing.
There almost are seven types of people like these in trains.
But, sometimes "a person who is thinking" is mistaken for "a person without doing anything."
Remember that teachers would direct me not to sit dreaming, when I was a student.
But there is no one who thinks, taking the pose of Rodin's sculpture.
A famous philosopher, Kant had a habit to walk in the morning.
I am sure that he had thought deeply, walking.
Human beings sometimes think, doing another things. Often I think, even while sleeping.
That is, it can be said that another six types of people, except for people doing nothing in the train, also think.
And thinking deeply is differ from shallowly thinking.
Things I thought, conceived, and hit on.
I have to output them as many as possible.
By talking, writing, and painting.
As many as I could...
Thought deeply over things like these in a train.
Perhaps teachers might direct me not to dreaming.
There almost are seven types of people like these in trains.
But, sometimes "a person who is thinking" is mistaken for "a person without doing anything."
Remember that teachers would direct me not to sit dreaming, when I was a student.
But there is no one who thinks, taking the pose of Rodin's sculpture.
A famous philosopher, Kant had a habit to walk in the morning.
I am sure that he had thought deeply, walking.
Human beings sometimes think, doing another things. Often I think, even while sleeping.
That is, it can be said that another six types of people, except for people doing nothing in the train, also think.
And thinking deeply is differ from shallowly thinking.
Things I thought, conceived, and hit on.
I have to output them as many as possible.
By talking, writing, and painting.
As many as I could...
Thought deeply over things like these in a train.
Perhaps teachers might direct me not to dreaming.
- 2007/01/18
- Midnight Talking
My own words
I would never use a word "beautiful" when I was a child.
I consciously didn't because the word embarrassed me.
And neither "lovely" nor "love."
It was recent when I could say these words without hesitation.
That means I could finally find out the true worth of these words, growing up.
I want to handle only what comes from myself.
I do not like a feeling in which only words are floating around.
So I use only my own words.
That's my politest attitude to words.
I consciously didn't because the word embarrassed me.
And neither "lovely" nor "love."
It was recent when I could say these words without hesitation.
That means I could finally find out the true worth of these words, growing up.
I want to handle only what comes from myself.
I do not like a feeling in which only words are floating around.
So I use only my own words.
That's my politest attitude to words.
- 2007/01/17
- Midnight Talking
NEXT LEVEL
What happened in their brains, when larvas of cicadas cast their skins?
I often wonder things like that.
The other day, I had a high fever.
In my case, I always have a fever when my style of artwork comes to make progress.
Once I surpass the margin, I can feel my brain developing fever.
Whatever comes up in my brain then?
Now I remember that I had an ache on my knees for the growth when I was in junior high school.
I think, perhaps, that there might be an ache as a risk for life to grow up.
If so, does a fever need for my brain to develop?
I don't know whether brains of cicadas become feverish or not, when they cast their skins.
Painting at a hotel room in LA.(2005)
I often wonder things like that.
The other day, I had a high fever.
In my case, I always have a fever when my style of artwork comes to make progress.
Once I surpass the margin, I can feel my brain developing fever.
Whatever comes up in my brain then?
Now I remember that I had an ache on my knees for the growth when I was in junior high school.
I think, perhaps, that there might be an ache as a risk for life to grow up.
If so, does a fever need for my brain to develop?
I don't know whether brains of cicadas become feverish or not, when they cast their skins.
Painting at a hotel room in LA.(2005)
- 2007/01/17
- Midnight Talking
The horizon of the night.
Drove a shoreline in my home town by myself at night.
At the beginning days of the New Year, I think of many things in the 365 days.
Think over the year, and things I could do in the year.
I make sure there is a limit for me to do in a year.
Then, I reflect on myself of the last year.
It can be said that my hobby is to reflecting.
It might not be a hobby, but a habit.
The life of a elephant is rather longer than that of a mouse.
But it's said that their numbers of heartbeat through their life are almost the same.
There is a limitation on my heartbeat.
And I could draw only traces limited in my life.
Besides there is a limitation for me to imagine and create.
I reflect on things I do in the day.
Not on my artworks, but also all things I do or say.
Better things or things not good.
I feel myself to be improved after reflecting.
For me, the end and beginning days of the year are days to settle things.
Over the dark horizon, I could see a small light.
At the beginning days of the New Year, I think of many things in the 365 days.
Think over the year, and things I could do in the year.
I make sure there is a limit for me to do in a year.
Then, I reflect on myself of the last year.
It can be said that my hobby is to reflecting.
It might not be a hobby, but a habit.
The life of a elephant is rather longer than that of a mouse.
But it's said that their numbers of heartbeat through their life are almost the same.
There is a limitation on my heartbeat.
And I could draw only traces limited in my life.
Besides there is a limitation for me to imagine and create.
I reflect on things I do in the day.
Not on my artworks, but also all things I do or say.
Better things or things not good.
I feel myself to be improved after reflecting.
For me, the end and beginning days of the year are days to settle things.
Over the dark horizon, I could see a small light.
- 2007/01/17
- Midnight Talking
White spirit
Sometimes I hear that "one color should be different to another persons."
Perhaps yellow to me might be red to the others...
That's not strange, because we have different brains.
But modern science haven't found the way to comfirm it yet.
At 2003, I started a series of "White World."
As a result of this age, or a condition of my mind, somehow I long for "white."
Although colorful works like POSSIBLE and The World Regeneration are great, I am attracted its reverse, the white.
I understand the beauty of yellw and red, but there are yellow and red over white.
White is a kind of accomplishment.
The reason I write "a kind of" is that if light are removed, there is black behind.
On the contrary, with full of light, there is white appears.
I prefer the white with light, the light of shadow and light.
So for me, "white" is not only a color, but also repserents a natural and simple condition, as it were, "a resetted condition."
Often I feel that it's enough only to have my brain.
I desire to get white spirit on my own.
By the way, returning to the beginning sentence...
I wonder that my yellnow might be red to you.
But I imagine that white is an only color that reflects the same in the eyes of everyone.
Of course, there is no way to confirm that...
Perhaps yellow to me might be red to the others...
That's not strange, because we have different brains.
But modern science haven't found the way to comfirm it yet.
At 2003, I started a series of "White World."
As a result of this age, or a condition of my mind, somehow I long for "white."
Although colorful works like POSSIBLE and The World Regeneration are great, I am attracted its reverse, the white.
I understand the beauty of yellw and red, but there are yellow and red over white.
White is a kind of accomplishment.
The reason I write "a kind of" is that if light are removed, there is black behind.
On the contrary, with full of light, there is white appears.
I prefer the white with light, the light of shadow and light.
So for me, "white" is not only a color, but also repserents a natural and simple condition, as it were, "a resetted condition."
Often I feel that it's enough only to have my brain.
I desire to get white spirit on my own.
By the way, returning to the beginning sentence...
I wonder that my yellnow might be red to you.
But I imagine that white is an only color that reflects the same in the eyes of everyone.
Of course, there is no way to confirm that...
- 2007/01/17
- Midnight Talking