ประภาส ชลศรานนท์ ที่ผมแอบมอง
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จำไม่ได้ว่าผมหยิบหนังสือ "เพลงเขียนคน ดนตรีเขียนโลก" มาจากหิ้งหนังสือของห้องสมุดแห่งไหนในจุฬาฯ แต่จำได้แม่นว่า นี่คือหนังสือเล่มหนึ่งที่เติมสารประกอบสำคัญเข้ามาในสมอง และหล่อหลอมให้เกิดความคิดแบบหนึ่งขึ้นในหัว กระทั่งวันนี้ความคิดนั้นยังคงอวลอยู่ไม่ไปไหน
...Continue ReadingPrapha sachon saranon that I sneak peek at
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I don't remember which library I picked up "music writing" from which library in chula, but I remember this is a book that added an important compound into my brain and forged. One thought in my head until today, that thought is still going anywhere.
The idea that is " many more
Along with the feeling that our little hands can write the world.
I have been listening to "Chaliang" since elementary school. Milk hasn't set (now). I still). I understand. When I was in University, the band disband disband has left just a story on the wood sheet for me. A lot of music never old. Those are written from the end of brother chik's pen - prapha chon Sara non
Reading this book makes you see the idea behind each song, and even more you see the author.
For me, whether brother chik wrote a song, wrote a book or made a movie, all he tried to do is ask people to try to look at the corner with more than just the corner.
See the world and your heart will be expansive.
Many more (many more that we don't know. We see it. Just in case we haven't seen it yet), Hibiscus Tree and blind (blind, but the mind is still bonded beauty), if there are only two of us in this world (time I'm hungry. Two of us will eat sticky rice with chicken noodles. Who to buy), it's up to who (it's up to who sees it, who can hear it, who decides), calm down bro (where are you going to fight with? I don't have time. Search for mind) etc.
Many songs of the lyrics are annoying. Such as when a lot of love songs say, " there are only us in this world brother chik asked me. Who will you want to eat noodles, who do you buy from? During a loud song If you don't love me, tell me. Tell me a word. " brother chik also wrote a song. Calm down. Where are you going? Let's see.
Khun Prapha Somchai cuddle will see the world in the drone corner. It's flying up to see the wide picture and spread out that there may be a corner that we forget to look at. The world could be something else.
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"many more" in the meaning of brother chik doesn't eat just one thing. There are hundreds of thousands of possible sources, but it also means looking at everyone. Everything is equally important. Equally beautiful. Not comparing to take it to take the beams, but look beautiful. Of that person then pull out that potential to create value
" Classic, don't insult jazz
Jazz don't watch clan pop
Pop, don't mind the country.
Don't be sulking with doctor lam.
Doctor Lam, don't think more than classic. It's high "
This is a message on the screen in the concert. The song makes me think of what brother chik told me in this book. "people are like fingers. It's not equal but fingers too and have different duties" is a teacher's speech. Teaching kids in the young movie of piak posters.
To this day, the " finger is not equal " has been interpreted and wittalion. But in the meaning that I understand that brother chik wants to press, the " difference " rather than " inequality " is thumb is different from Index Finger and pinky and brother chik says " you could be a pinky finger which is more important than the index finger in some things read and think that our round fingers are valuable in our way.
"Tao" which sees the value of the nature of things like this. Often seen in the work of brother chik.
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3
Mr. Prapha is not a big person. If there are two sides, brother chik will not stand on one side. Maybe because of the eyes that sees the beauty of each thing, each mind and an open view. I don't believe that anyone is all right. Or all wrong. Everything is good or bad.
Most importantly, this kind of thought resilience is believed that the people or the extreme thoughts we see are not eternal, but it can always change. The Extreme can also be adjusted, divided, exchange. New ingredients in themselves.
Once I had an opportunity to sit and talk with brother chik. Then we went to consult about making tv show. Our team is interested in a program that focuses on content. Easy, I want to pass knowledge to the audience. When I tell you the pattern and content to you. Listen to the brother ask, " is knowledge necessary that it must not be fun stop thinking and continue asking " is entertainment necessary to be ridiculous "
Just these two questions expand our view. We can see a new area that there is still space in the middle that combines what we thought were irrelevant. Different Worlds. and if we could, we could, we wouldn't cut off any kind of value.
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That's another feature of brother chik that I secretly look at. This guy doesn't teach straight away, doesn't comment, but he likes to ask questions. Let the partner to consider it himself. This technique is used in writing as well.
The question that brother chik throws at can make us think " can it be something else " or " can it really see one way
This kind of conversation is like a kind adult who doesn't block. It doesn't draw the line what it should be. But let us choose by ourselves. This is how to tease you think with the question that khun prapha can use this kind of weapon. Praew praew praw praw praw praw The more and more.
If anyone has worked with brother chik, maybe it feels why I came up with this idea! I'm really good! But in fact, we can think because we are triggered by his brother's questions, but we will feel good because no one has ordered us to do that. We make our own decisions.
So it's not just creative work, but the way of working is also creative.
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The Picture of brother chik that I remember when I was looking at the idol in the conference room is a picture of a playful executive like a little boy who had the big one who had the power to make any decision.
I saw his brother spinning pen, drawing a picture, and poke him out while everyone was meeting seriously thinking about it.
Good ideas often come up during our relaxing time -- I've heard many good thinking people say that. Many people say that if we don't lose our children, we will always keep the potential to imagine and creative.
Photo of Mr. Prapha in the conference room for me like a playful kid.
Another picture that I remember is in the conference room and dining table of the group who often meet each other. Brother Chik will tease the scared by putting a glass of water. The Edge of the table. It seems to fall to test if that person can endure enough. That person keeps moving deep. Mr. Prapha will laugh and says, " can't you stand it? Can't you stand this kind of thing
A Writer, a creative thinker that we have been following for a long time. Admired and thought that he would be quiet. But when he met the real one, he became a playful little boy, fast talking, Pear, praw and questioning. A very fun conversation.
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If I would write about "the" from the eyes that I would have written many pages of paper because I have been looking at brother chik since the work behind my thoughts to read every interview that I saw until I had a chance to meet on the occasion. I'm always looking at verbs, symptoms and thoughts of brother chik. Teacher's Melody.
Finally, brother chik is not crazy. People may see the work, but they don't have to see his own. We know the song. Scream and laugh with brothers and musicians. We love the program of work. Point or many other creative works caused by this brother's mind, but often we don't even know or don't even think there is him behind it.
This is another thing that brother chik taught me. We can make a change or create something without letting people see us. in some cases, it's more powerful than having better cuddle results.
We have seen Mr. Prapha through some work, but I believe there are many pieces of this sharp and round anchor that we didn't know was his work.
The fit of being seen is something that brother chik manages to learn and nan cuddle baht.
Prapha Chon Saranon is a teacher with many lessons to sneak peek and learn.
Thank you brother chik for being an inspiration, an open thought perspective. He ignites the dream of writing books and giving "many more" tips in my heart since I was in teenagers through your work.
Congratulations to brother chik for the National Artist Award in performing arts as the creator of International Thai entertainment and music event this year.
I really want to tell brother chik that "music writing music"
At least one of me is the productivity from your song.
With love and thanks
Ehhh (round finger)Translated
is fact sheet one word or two 在 V.K克 Facebook 的精選貼文
今天跟大家分享一位韓國粉絲朋友Won Woon Han的演奏,他演奏的曲目是OUR STORY .
知道這位朋友是好幾年前他為了要從台灣無英文網站購買樂譜(台灣購物網站都不國際化),多次寫信到公司詢問,後來透過公司協助他終於買到了(而且之後他就知道怎麼買了)。
後來看到他常常分享自己的演奏影片,可以看出非常初學的程度仍然努力不懈的挑戰每一首曲目,而且踏板從來不踩也不換,但可以感受到他真心喜歡音樂。
後來我創辦的琴之翼 V.K克國際音樂大賽Wings of Piano V.K International Music Competition
改為網路免費報名,這位朋友也很熱情的報名參加。雖然面對來自世界各地的好手,仍然勇於參加而且非常具有運動家精神並享受這個比賽,令人驚艷的是,有一次我跟他說了踏板的問題,再後來的比賽影片中我發現他已經有所改善,而且持續進步中。參加這個比賽雖然沒有得獎,但是透過他的回覆留言,可以感受到他對於能參加這個比賽與大家交流,他感到非常的滿足,而我也從這些來自各地好手的許多故事而得到了正能量以及讓我更認為我是在做對的事。
這次是我首次看到他登台演出的影片,
我覺得非常的感動,而且對他持之以恆的毅力非常佩服。舞台上他彈奏的每一顆音符展現出來他的努力以及他的誠意,而且進步很多。(其實這樣進步神速的故事台灣參賽者也有許多,我都偷偷看到了。)對我來說,我從粉絲朋友們上面得到了許多正能量,我是幸福的,因此才能夠創作出帶給更多人美好的音樂,如紙飛機的冒險、Evolution era…等等。謝謝你們,讓我們一起欣賞這場在韓國的演出吧。
Hello Hello Hello Hello~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Long time no see~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Venerate(respect) my pianist V.K
I want to share good(?) dolefu[{sad}?] News~
May be, it(this is) will be very very long contents.
Warnning(be Safe).
Here is my video
Please watch this and enjoy it~
Always i did bring video, From now too.
This is my play your song 'Our Story'
But this is special.
Really really really really~~~~~~~~ Special!!!!!
More detail explain.
I did participate in Small Piano Concert on January 14th
The name is 제1회 마음만은 피아니스트 정기연주회(이하:마피아)
Maybe English name is The first Piano Concert: If my mind is a Pianist(Short Name: Mapia)
Here is site.:https://www.mapianist.com
Maybe English name is incorrect (you may know this information. my english skill very poor)
Sorry.
So, This site this For person that Favorite Piano, For Person that Favorite listen to Piano Music
and For person that Favorite Play the piano etc
There is manifold person and Music style
For example, Jazz, Newage, Classic, k-Pop, Movie ost.
And this site can share Plenty of Piano Sheet( Free or NON free)
This is site introduce~.^^
From Now i explain Korean Word on My video.
There was many people.
Maybe total Population about 40~60
Pianinist(Participate in Play the piano person, Like me, about 15)
My turn is 7th
Here is dialogue(script)
안녕하세요 마피아에서 Soul Killer로 활동하고있는 24살................................입.....니다...
Hello, I use this nick name 'Soul Killer' activate on MAPIA site and 24 years....................................................................old(My Mouth is tied.
I don't konw, next I want to say......MY Head is down untill my waist)
우선 이자리 마련해주신 마피아 관계자분들꼐 감사의 말씀 올려드리고, 바쁘신 와중에도 불구하고 찾아주신 여러분들께 감사의
말씀드립니다.
First Thanks to MAPIA administator about Provide this place, Once and again Very thank you.
Although audience is very very busy, But participate in this place, also, very thank you Once and again Very thank you
먼저 제가 연주하기전에 곡 설명을 먼저 해드릴게요.
Before my play show to audience, Explain Composer V.K and song.
V.K는 한국 피아니스트가 아닌 대만 피아니스트입니다.
V.K is not Korean Pianist, but Taiwan Pianist.
음...........................................................................원래는 저도 몰랐었는데.......휴대폰 리듬게임 중에 Deemo 라고 있어요
Umm.....................................................(My mouth is tide.......) Orginally say, I also didn't know About V.K, Until i meet Deemo.
거기에 삽입된 곡중 하나인데... 아 물론 제가 연주하는 곡은 아니에요. 이곡은 새로운 앨범의 메인 곡입니다.
This song One of the deemo's song( my mistake), absolutely say This is not deemo song.
This is main song of V.K's new album
디모는 아이폰이나 안드로이드 다 가능하니까 아름다운 곡들 많이 있으니까 한번 해보시는것도 좋을것 같아요.
Deemo is play possible iphone, Android. There is many beautiful song on deemo song~! Try it~
어쩌다가 제가 디모를 홍보하고있는....
I advertise Game Deemo(Joke)
아 그리고 제가 아직 악보를 외우지를 못해서....(자리 피함)
Oh I forget important information, I didn't memorize song Sorry(step down on the stage)
여기까지 하구요 바로 연주할게요........감사합니다.
End. I play the song Right now. Thank you (Head down until my waist)
(잘생기신분이 무대에 오르려다가 무대 바닥에 발을 헛디뎌 위험한 상황 발생)
괜찮으세요....?
(Happen to dangerous Situation., The handsome guy jump on the Stage, BUT There is a problem.
Miss he's step, Very dangerous Situation. The hamsome guy is Piano Player Like me.
I say to Hansome guy 'Are you okay?
(뒤에있는 남성분은 마피아 관리자 경찰님이십니다.)
{(you can see the another person,(Behind me) He is MAPIA administator. He use this nick name: Police }
경찰님이 말씀하시길 넘돌이 해드릴까요?
The police say " Do you need a page tuner?"
아 아뇨 괜찮아요.
I say " no no fine, thank you~^^"
마이크 쥐고 (웃음) 여기까지 하도록 하구요 연주......할게요 감사합니다.
(보면대 설치한뒤, 앉은 상태에서 준비 완료 손짓 보여드림)
Grab the micro phone(laugh) This is end, I play the piano right now. Thank you.
(Set up the Music stand, I Sit down Piano seat and I move my fingers. This mean is 'I'm Ready')
and Music, my play start.
V.K very very very sorry..... sorry sorry
I spoil your song very very very sorry....................................................very sorry ㅑ'm doleful sad, depressed.
Forgive me forgive me forgive me.........................................................
I did have plenty of exercise again and again, again, again.
But i didn't show as much as my effort
Forgive me forgive me.............................................................................................
Once and again very very sorry
Nex time i may have another concert.
I will not show mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry sorry.....................................Forgive me ..............
I experience precious event(?) News(?)
This is very very important !!!
Concentrate Please
After my play, we have a break time.
I'm going to back stage Because i retrive my Cellular Phone.
While I'm going to back stage, I meet 2~3 girls
Girls are comming to me
and say (Define something Girl1->G1, Girl2->G2 Girl3->G3 )
G1: Hello Glad to meet you. Your play is very very awesome, touched, very very fantastic.
Thank you for share good music!!!! Good Good!!!!
I say: Bless my bark.....oh oh oh........................ I Can not think this event. NO NO I did nothing.
Although I have plenty of Mistake, But you are naturally enjoy my music...
Thank you too.. very thank you thank you.(I'm very touched......)
G1: NO no you are very very nice, good. (point next Girls2) She is my friend.
she is crying until You are play finish.
(I'm very amazed... She is really really cry......cry...............cry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think by myself Oh my god....
This is my guult. Oh no no what should i do?)
G2: Yo...........u.......yo.... YOU... are very very awesome..... i can not stop my tears.
(she is moving her's hands, and get rid of her's tears)
G2: Sorry. your play is very very very awesome, and Song is very very my style.
I love it !! Thank you Once and again say Thak you!!!!
I say: Oh.... Oh.....oh........................thank you thank you (I amazed and touched too)
I did nothing, Don't cry Don't cry. I also thank you too...
Thank you Thank you..... I don't know What i want to say... My mouth is tied.... Thank you thank you.
(And my Head down until my waist)
G3: Can i shake your hands? Can you receive my Request?
I say: Of course Of course. Here is my left hand.
G3: Thank you thank you Have a nice day~
I say : Oh....oh thank you thank you i really appreciate it...
Have a nice day too(And my head down until my waist)
Also boys too.( Define something Boy1 -> B1, Boy2->B2
After all play(Piano play) finish, We have a party.
I meet a two boys
Here is Script.
B1: Your play is very Awesome. V.K is my favorite composor
I say: Really ? I also too... Thank you Thank you (MY head down Untill my Waist)
B1: You are upload V.K'S song, aren't you?
I say: Yes yes it's me.
B1: Always I listen to your play,
I say: oh....oh thank you although i have plenty of mistake, you are like my play.
Really Really appreciate. Thank you Thank you. I effort to exercise, and i bring many V.K's song
B1: Thank you Thank you!! Have a nice day.
I'm look forward to uploding your play.
I say: Once and again i also Thak you too.(And my head down until my waist)
B2: Can.....you take a picture together> Can you receive my request?
I say: Of course Come here~~
I also meet many a person.
The person is know composer V.K or not.
The person is know Game Deemo or not.
I'm really really Happy. Because of V.K and deemo are very famous and Soar Spread.
Really Really Happy i have never forget precious Experience.
I really relly can't Forget Until end of my life
ALL every thing is....Thanks to V.K
I really reayy appreciate^^ O_<. ^_^ :) ^//////^
and there is one more thing
Before i meet your music, I'm very shy human.(Of course, from now Shy too)
I'm very difficult stand on the stage.
Also difficult Stand in front of many people.
For example, when i was teenager, School give manifold performance assessment for me.
Korea, Math, P.E(physical education), Computer. < This subject is not problem for me.
But MUSIC is different.
Almost Music performance assessment is show my skill in front of many people.
I'm very scared, I don't know.
When i stand In front of many people, My all body is shiver, this is not light very very very very very harsh.
Don't stop I can't stop, I will not stop. I never stop my body !
So this accient, Many children make fun of me.
Of course, I didn't black sheep.
I have a Friend.
This symptom is Keep acting Untill High school.
Of course When i was 17~19Years old, keep acting This symptom.
After i Graduate from high school, I enter the College.
And one day, I meet a Rhythm Game 'Cytus' and also meet deemo.
AT this time is i meet a your song.
and... one day pass pass and again.
I'm touch the piano again,
In fact i was played piano, maybe at that time, my old is 6~7years.
And exercise your song and again again.
I'm reinvigorate to myself(my Body)
and Finally i experiment my symptom.
Still Keep acting symptom.
The experiment is here(MAPIA CONCERT)
Long ago my turns comming, I feel very very nervous very very high.
But from now very different.
I Can't feel nothing, even my symptom.
At my turn, i stand on the sage, and i say.. but Speak is need more exercise.
Everything is clear.
I can get rid of my Symptom.
it is possible. Because of you(V.K)
Of course i need more exercise play the grand piano or other piano, not my piano at my home.
Once again I'm very sorry about spoil your song.
Very very sorry.
And, very very thank you.
MAYBE you are not here, this world.
Maybe I always act shy boy, and can't get rid of my Symptom.
VERY VERY thank you.
ALL EVERY THING IS POSSIBLE, YOU(V.K) ARE HERE
VERY VERY VERY VERY THANK YOU....
Thank you thank you .thank you................................................
Thank you Really appreciate.~~^^ O_<. ^_^ :) ^//////^
ALWAYS ALWAYS HAVE A NICE DAY
I ROOTING FOR YOU UNTIL END OF MY LIFE.
Once and agin very thank you
Catch you later~~^^
(Bless my bark very long......sorry...^^)
O_<. ^_^ :) ^//////^
Sincerly
Regards WON WOONG HAM
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
is fact sheet one word or two 在 YOSHITOMO NARA Facebook 的最佳貼文
Nobody’s Fool ( January 2011 )
Yoshitomo Nara
Do people look to my childhood for sources of my imagery? Back then, the snow-covered fields of the north were about as far away as you could get from the rapid economic growth happening elsewhere. Both my parents worked and my brothers were much older, so the only one home to greet me when I got back from elementary school was a stray cat we’d taken in. Even so, this was the center of my world. In my lonely room, I would twist the radio dial to the American military base station and out blasted rock and roll music. One of history’s first man-made satellites revolved around me up in the night sky. There I was, in touch with the stars and radio waves.
It doesn’t take much imagination to envision how a lonely childhood in such surroundings might give rise to the sensibility in my work. In fact, I also used to believe in this connection. I would close my eyes and conjure childhood scenes, letting my imagination amplify them like the music coming from my speakers.
But now, past the age of fifty and more cool-headed, I’ve begun to wonder how big a role childhood plays in making us who we are as adults. Looking through reproductions of the countless works I’ve made between my late twenties and now, I get the feeling that childhood experiences were merely a catalyst. My art derives less from the self-centered instincts of childhood than from the day-to-day sensory experiences of an adult who has left this realm behind. And, ultimately, taking the big steps pales in importance to the daily need to keep on walking.
While I was in high school, before I had anything to do with art, I worked part-time in a rock café. There I became friends with a graduate student of mathematics who one day started telling me, in layman’s terms, about his major in topology. His explanation made the subject seem less like a branch of mathematics than some fascinating organic philosophy. My understanding is that topology offers you a way to discover the underlying sameness of countless, seemingly disparate, forms. Conversely, it explains why many people, when confronted with apparently identical things, will accept a fake as the genuine article. I later went on to study art, live in Germany, and travel around the world, and the broader perspective I’ve gained has shown me that topology has long been a subtext of my thinking. The more we add complexity, the more we obscure what is truly valuable. Perhaps the reason I began, in the mid-90s, trying to make paintings as simple as possible stems from that introduction to topology gained in my youth.
As a kid listening to U.S. armed-forces radio, I had no idea what the lyrics meant, but I loved the melody and rhythm of the music. In junior high school, my friends and I were already discussing rock and roll like credible music critics, and by the time I started high school, I was hanging out in rock coffee shops and going to live shows. We may have been a small group of social outcasts, but the older kids, who smoked cigarettes and drank, talked to us all night long about movies they’d seen or books they’d read. If the nighttime student quarter had been the school, I’m sure I would have been a straight-A student.
In the 80s, I left my hometown to attend art school, where I was anything but an honors student. There, a model student was one who brought a researcher’s focus to the work at hand. Your bookshelves were stacked with catalogues and reference materials. When you weren’t working away in your studio, you were meeting with like-minded classmates to discuss art past and present, including your own. You were hoping to set new trends in motion. Wholly lacking any grand ambition, I fell well short of this model, with most of my paintings done to satisfy class assignments. I was, however, filling every one of my notebooks, sketchbooks, and scraps of wrapping paper with crazy, graffiti-like drawings.
Looking back on my younger days—Where did where all that sparkling energy go? I used the money from part-time jobs to buy record albums instead of art supplies and catalogues. I went to movies and concerts, hung out with my girlfriend, did funky drawings on paper, and made midnight raids on friends whose boarding-room lights still happened to be on. I spent the passions of my student days outside the school studio. This is not to say I wasn’t envious of the kids who earned the teachers’ praise or who debuted their talents in early exhibitions. Maybe envy is the wrong word. I guess I had the feeling that we were living in separate worlds. Like puffs of cigarette smoke or the rock songs from my speaker, my adolescent energies all vanished in the sky.
Being outside the city and surrounded by rice fields, my art school had no art scene to speak of—I imagined the art world existing in some unknown dimension, like that of TV or the movies. At the time, art could only be discussed in a Western context, and, therefore, seemed unreal. But just as every country kid dreams of life in the big city, this shaky art-school student had visions of the dazzling, far-off realm of contemporary art. Along with this yearning was an equally strong belief that I didn’t deserve admittance to such a world. A typical provincial underachiever!
I did, however, love to draw every day and the scrawled sketches, never shown to anybody, started piling up. Like journal entries reflecting the events of each day, they sometimes intersected memories from the past. My little everyday world became a trigger for the imagination, and I learned to develop and capture the imagery that arose. I was, however, still a long way off from being able to translate those countless images from paper to canvas.
Visions come to us through daydreams and fantasies. Our emotional reaction towards these images makes them real. Listening to my record collection gave me a similar experience. Before the Internet, the precious little information that did exist was to be found in the two or three music magazines available. Most of my records were imported—no liner notes or lyric sheets in Japanese. No matter how much I liked the music, living in a non-English speaking world sadly meant limited access to the meaning of the lyrics. The music came from a land of societal, religious, and subcultural sensibilities apart from my own, where people moved their bodies to it in a different rhythm. But that didn’t stop me from loving it. I never got tired of poring over every inch of the record jackets on my 12-inch vinyl LPs. I took the sounds and verses into my body. Amidst today’s superabundance of information, choosing music is about how best to single out the right album. For me, it was about making the most use of scant information to sharpen my sensibilities, imagination, and conviction. It might be one verse, melody, guitar riff, rhythmic drum beat or bass line, or record jacket that would inspire me and conjure up fresh imagery. Then, with pencil in hand, I would draw these images on paper, one after the other. Beyond good or bad, the pictures had a will of their own, inhabiting the torn pages with freedom and friendliness.
By the time I graduated from university, my painting began to approach the independence of my drawing. As a means for me to represent a world that was mine and mine alone, the paintings may not have been as nimble as the drawings, but I did them without any preliminary sketching. Prizing feelings that arose as I worked, I just kept painting and over-painting until I gained a certain freedom and the sense, though vague at the time, that I had established a singular way of putting images onto canvas. Yet, I hadn’t reached the point where I could declare that I would paint for the rest of my life.
After receiving my undergraduate degree, I entered the graduate school of my university and got a part-time job teaching at an art yobiko—a prep school for students seeking entrance to an art college. As an instructor, training students how to look at and compose things artistically, meant that I also had to learn how to verbalize my thoughts and feelings. This significant growth experience not only allowed me to take stock of my life at the time, but also provided a refreshing opportunity to connect with teenage hearts and minds.
And idealism! Talking to groups of art students, I naturally found myself describing the ideals of an artist. A painful experience for me—I still had no sense of myself as an artist. The more the students showed their affection for me, the more I felt like a failed artist masquerading as a sensei (teacher). After completing my graduate studies, I kept working as a yobiko instructor. And in telling students about the path to becoming an artist, I began to realize that I was still a student myself, with many things yet to learn. I felt that I needed to become a true art student. I decided to study in Germany. The day I left the city where I had long lived, many of my students appeared on the platform to see me off.
Life as a student in Germany was a happy time. I originally intended to go to London, but for economic reasons chose a tuition-free, and, fortunately, academism-free German school. Personal approaches coexisted with conceptual ones, and students tried out a wide range of modes of expression. Technically speaking, we were all students, but each of us brought a creator’s spirit to the fore. The strong wills and opinions of the local students, though, were well in place before they became artists thanks to the German system of early education. As a reticent foreign student from a far-off land, I must have seemed like a mute child. I decided that I would try to make myself understood not through words, but through having people look at my pictures. When winter came and leaden clouds filled the skies, I found myself slipping back to the winters of my childhood. Forgoing attempts to speak in an unknown language, I redoubled my efforts to express myself through visions of my private world. Thinking rather than talking, then illustrating this thought process in drawings and, finally, realizing it in a painting. Instead of defeating you in an argument, I wanted to invite you inside me. Here I was, in a most unexpected place, rediscovering a value that I thought I had lost—I felt that I had finally gained the ability to learn and think, that I had become a student in the truest sense of the word.
But I still wasn’t your typical honors student. My paintings clearly didn’t look like contemporary art, and nobody would say my images fit in the context of European painting. They did, however, catch the gaze of dealers who, with their antennae out for young artists, saw my paintings as new objects that belonged less to the singular world of art and more to the realm of everyday life. Several were impressed by the freshness of my art, and before I knew it, I was invited to hold exhibitions in established galleries—a big step into a wider world.
The six years that I spent in Germany after completing my studies and before returning to Japan were golden days, both for me and my work. Every day and every night, I worked tirelessly to fix onto canvas all the visions that welled up in my head. My living space/studio was in a dreary, concrete former factory building on the outskirts of Cologne. It was the center of my world. Late at night, my surroundings were enveloped in darkness, but my studio was brightly lit. The songs of folk poets flowed out of my speakers. In that place, standing in front of the canvas sometimes felt like traveling on a solitary voyage in outer space—a lonely little spacecraft floating in the darkness of the void. My spaceship could go anywhere in this fantasy while I was painting, even to the edge of the universe.
Suddenly one day, I was flung outside—my spaceship was to be scrapped. My little vehicle turned back into an old concrete building, one that was slated for destruction because it was falling apart. Having lost the spaceship that had accompanied me on my lonely travels, and lacking the energy to look for a new studio, I immediately decided that I might as well go back to my homeland. It was painful and sad to leave the country where I had lived for twelve years and the handful of people I could call friends. But I had lost my ship. The only place I thought to land was my mother country, where long ago those teenagers had waved me goodbye and, in retrospect, whose letters to me while I was in Germany were a valuable source of fuel.
After my long space flight, I returned to Japan with the strange sense of having made a full orbit around the planet. The new studio was a little warehouse on the outskirts of Tokyo, in an area dotted with rice fields and small factories. When the wind blew, swirls of dust slipped in through the cracks, and water leaked down the walls in heavy rains. In my dilapidated warehouse, only one sheet of corrugated metal separated me from the summer heat and winter cold. Despite the funky environment, I was somehow able to keep in midnight contact with the cosmos—the beings I had drawn and painted in Germany began to mature. The emotional quality of the earlier work gave way to a new sense of composure. I worked at refining the former impulsiveness of the drawings and the monochromatic, almost reverent, backgrounds of the paintings. In my pursuit of fresh imagery, I switched from idle experimentation to a more workmanlike approach towards capturing what I saw beyond the canvas.
Children and animals—what simple motifs! Appearing on neat canvases or in ephemeral drawings, these figures are easy on the viewers’ eyes. Occasionally, they shake off my intentions and leap to the feet of their audience, never to return. Because my motifs are accessible, they are often only understood on a superficial level. Sometimes art that results from a long process of development receives only shallow general acceptance, and those who should be interpreting it fail to do so, either through a lack of knowledge or insufficient powers of expression. Take, for example, the music of a specific era. People who lived during this era will naturally appreciate the music that was then popular. Few of these listeners, however, will know, let alone value, the music produced by minor labels, by introspective musicians working under the radar, because it’s music that’s made in answer to an individual’s desire, not the desires of the times. In this way, people who say that “Nara loves rock,” or “Nara loves punk” should see my album collection. Of four thousand records there are probably fewer than fifty punk albums. I do have a lot of 60s and 70s rock and roll, but most of my music is from little labels that never saw commercial success—traditional roots music by black musicians and white musicians, and contemplative folk. The spirit of any era gives birth to trends and fashions as well as their opposite: countless introspective individual worlds. A simultaneous embrace of both has cultivated my sensibility and way of thinking. My artwork is merely the tip of the iceberg that is my self. But if you analyzed the DNA from this tip, you would probably discover a new way of looking at my art. My viewers become a true audience when they take what I’ve made and make it their own. That’s the moment the works gain their freedom, even from their maker.
After contemplative folk singers taught me about deep empathy, the punk rockers schooled me in explosive expression.
I was born on this star, and I’m still breathing. Since childhood, I’ve been a jumble of things learned and experienced and memories that can’t be forgotten. Their involuntary locomotion is my inspiration. I don’t express in words the contents of my work. I’ll only tell you my history. The countless stories living inside my work would become mere fabrications the moment I put them into words. Instead, I use my pencil to turn them into pictures. Standing before the dark abyss, here’s hoping my spaceship launches safely tonight….