For me, making collages is the most fun. First of all, I will cut the pages from the 1960s fashion magazines and the Scientific American, and put them into an empty confectionery box. Then I take the images out of the box and edit my original stories. It seems to be making paper dolls and playing in fiction as same as my childhood.
After studying literature at the college, I worked at an insurance company for tuition and entered art school. It was a private school in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo called Setsu Mode Seminar (the closing down of a school in 2017). I remember that I made many sketches of “groovy” models in the atelier three days a week. The late Setsu Nagasawa (1917-1999) who was the founder of Setsu Mode Seminar was an authority on fashion drawings. And he was also a journalist who reported Paris Fashion Week which held in Paris, France each year. I hear that Japanese surrealist Toshiko Okanoue (1928- ) began to make collages because she was admiring Setsu Nagasawa’s fashion drawings. By the way, she had worked with Katsue Kitasono (1902-1978) several times when Kitasono was an art director.
The words I learned from Setsu Nagasawa regarding the art are《Freedom》and 《Elegance》. In addition, what I aim for as an artist is《Humor》. If let me say adding to it, it is 《The art which makes me (or you) a singer》.
I am singing now,
“I miss the earth so much…”
― ‘Rocket Man’ Songwriters: Elton John, Bernie Taupin
