Author Archives: takashimanatsumi

ripple

Not wanting to go straight home, I dropped by the station building for no particular reason, and found a simple stage in the stairwell.
People were gathering around, and posters were posted, saying that there was going to be a musical event from now on.
A classical concert on a Friday evening.

A silver-haired madam sitting in the front seat was waiting impatiently for the concert to start.
I have no knowledge of classical music.
Even when I got hooked on Nodame Cantabile, I never bothered to find out what the music in the play was about.
I was taken to a classical concert at a school hall when I was in elementary school.
I was so tired of classical concerts in the hall that I had to fight against drowsiness, so I was not very good at it.

Listening to live music might be a good way to pass the time.
I’ve had those pre-holiday nights where I just can’t bring myself to enjoy it.
I felt as if listening to music would make it wonderful.
I ordered a pound cake from a nearby cafe and sat down at the counter.
In a daze, I hear a slow tempo and relaxing sounds.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle, solemn, dark music begins.
The happy laughter of college girls and businessmen discussing the restaurant they are about to go for a drink pass by.

In a sometime drama.
There was a scene in a drama about a quartet of aspiring professionals playing instruments in a suburban aeon.
I loved that drama and remember it because I saw the same scene many times back then.
Each of the four musicians makes a piece of music with their instruments in front of a few people who can’t even be called an audience.
No one was listening to the classical music, and the only response was the Dracula theme.
A middle school boy passing by happily stopped.
I can only imagine how unreasonable and frustrating that must have been.
If it were true, it would be the dream of the characters to play proper classical music in the right place.
I wonder if the people who are making music here now are also people who, like the characters in the drama, will never be top-notch.

People wearing bright dresses for performance and playing instruments with serious expressions on their faces, who would be afraid to walk outside as they are.
I wonder where these people are going and why they are playing here and now.
Without knowing anyone’s background, the music just passes by.

For those walking by with earphones listening to music, they may not even know that there is a concert here today.

I hear a flurry of applause when the music ends after a rather short span of time, as if it were for a general concert.
The sound was rough, obligatory, and grainy.
Impressed, in passing, rather than impressed, was the more apt word.
Someone briefly added a commentary about the music, and then, as if in a stream
and then, as if in a stream, the music moved on to the next song, and the next, and the next.
The music was rushed through, and there was no time to feel the afterglow of the music.
It was sad that there was no time to feel the afterglow of the music.

In the back seat behind me, a man said to me, “If you bought something at one of our stores, you can eat it.
You can eat anything you buy at our store.
A girl shook her head at the waiter and said, “You can eat anything you buy at our store.
She was about to leave without listening to the music.
She must have thought that since it was an outside counter, she could bring in something from another store, and I could see the look on her face as if she was flustered at having been warned.

The next piece played was an aria on the G string.
I thought, “I know at least this much,” and then the concert was over.
Without so much as a hello, a crowd of people left the stage.

The people bowing at the podium.
I could see the madam I saw first, who remained in her seat until the end of the concert.

I don’t know if the music is good or bad.
But I am sure that the time with music has become a little less depressing.
I finish my pound cake and leave the table.
It was still a depressing Friday night, but I decided to buy something I liked and go home.

#001 Ryouta Shiga Painter

Expressing the “Enthusiasm”

When I stepped into the room and first saw the painting, I was overwhelmed.

I don’t think this is the size of the piece.

I was embarrassed that I felt like I knew what I was doing when I saw the Instagram image.

We are genuinely impressed by the power of the size as well as surprised at how much the image changes with the size.

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“Engrossed”

The picture, titled

An overlaid dark background

A figure, which could be either a girl or a boy, floats in a shimmering, pale luminescence.

In the thick black night sea with a little density,

Topun,

And you can hear the sound of soaking,

That’s a gentle picture.

That was the first time I saw it.

I’m sinking, but I’m not sad.

This picture has a strange atmosphere, as if the person in question does not understand the situation.

“When you’re preoccupied,

“You’re so focused that for a moment you don’t know where you are.

“But it was a lot of fun, and I wanted to show that.”

I don’t even know if I’m sinking or floating.

But that moment when you’re hooked

I was too happy and joyful

The time goes by so fast before you even pay attention to your surroundings.

It is a cut-out expression of the moment of getting into it.

I remember that too.

You’re reading your favorite novel on the train, and before you know it, you’re a few stops past the station where you get off.

Before you start reading, you think you have to be careful not to immerse yourself, but once you enter the world, that thought goes away.

It is fun and very precious to be able to go to the world you like and to have that world with you.

When you face what you love, all the voices and circumstances around you do not enter.

When you face what you love, all the voices and circumstances around you do not come into the picture.

That’s a world of fun.

See and absorb the actual product

We have more opportunities to see the work of many creators on Instagram and elsewhere.

But you can only feel the grainy paint and the breath of the person/artist in the painting in the actual thing.

I stop in front of a picture I like, and I look at it until I get tired of it, even though I can’t remember it, with my eyes plated to input as much information as possible.

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Maybe my brain is working to process the information, but I get very tired on those days.

But I have the feeling that the cells inside me have changed a bit.

That’s why I like to see things with my eyes.

To be a “painter”, I wear two pairs of sandals

“Artists and such

“To call a work art is

I don’t really like it.

I’m just a painter.

When you make something good and start selling it

Dan, you become a businessman.

Then

I feel like one day I won’t be the creator.”

It costs money to live.

In order to eat, people involved in the arts shift from producing what they want to produce to producing what they can produce and are in demand.

We create and sell what the world will receive.

I can paint more of my own pictures if they sell.

Be aware of someone else’s point of view, other than your own.

If you become a commercial artist and sell well, you may indeed be able to live on that art alone.

Only a handful of people are able to make what they want to make and make a good living at it.

Painter.

A person who draws what he/she genuinely wants to draw.

In order to continue to be that kind of person, he said, he has tried to separate his work as an unbending part of his life, and his work as a necessary part of continuing to paint.

Unsurprisingly, the non-painting routine creates a rhythm and a sense of well-being in my life.

The understanding and environment around me was a big part of it, but I think it was because people around me resonated with my honest attitude of trying to do what I wanted to do.

Their smiles were so pure and innocent, and I was so happy to talk to them and see that they were enjoying every day.

Taste the color and texture of the actual object you see, the feeling of being right there

In a workroom with white walls lined with pictures

The images are all different from what you see scrolling by with your thumb.

Vibrant red, dark blue and green.

Colors seen through a painting look very vivid because we are not usually conscious of them.

The texture of the canvas material behind the oil paint.

It is easy to forget that the lighting shadows created by the thickness of the canvas create different looks.

All that you don’t know in the palm of your hand.

Simple eyes, nose and mouth with no irregularities.

Because the picture has a soft and pretty taste

I thought it would be a fantasy line,

When I heard that the subject matter is based on everyday life,

Let’s take another look at the perception.

A little chuckle after a fight between a couple, a scene where they change light bulbs, a bicycle that winds down, a cut where you can almost hear their conversation on a lonely night.

When I suddenly come back to myself, I feel a small face looking at me from behind the painting and smiling.

questioning, interpreting, suki-kiri, moving the mind

Why is this picture titled this way?

This picture looks sad, it looks happy…

The creator and the viewer,

When the intentions of both parties resonate with each other, the emotion is great.

But there are cases where diametrically opposed opinions or different interpretations walk alone.

It is normal to feel differently

Whether you like it or not, what you feel is right.

That’s why opinions like this or don’t like that are valuable.

In the screen in the palm of your hand, the paint is painted over and not raised.

I can’t even smell the paint.

Part of the image is cut out of the screen, looking at you with a scruffy expression.

That’s an outsider’s look.

I wonder if what I think I like is really what I think it is

Or is it not?

Please move your own feet and experience the feeling of your heart moving.

Because it is a sign of being human that the heart moves.

Interview

– Please introduce yourself.

My name is Ryuta Shiga.

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I am 34 years old, born in Aichi prefecture, now living in Gifu, and have been painting all my life, self-taught for about 9 years.

-What is the focus of your work?

The theme is everyday life, it could be a daily view where I took a walk, or a view at work.

The view of cooking in the kitchen…that’s what I draw based on.

– What are the basic methods of expression and painting materials you use?

Basically, I used oil painting, and only the eyes of the figures are drawn in pencil.

I started to write only there in pencil because it is easier to create slightly soft eyes and facial expressions.

-Where did you get the idea for the impressive “face”?

The original drawing of the face went from this face (simple face with some expression of eyes, nose and mouth) to this face (round eyes and a single line for the mouth) to the current face.

When I was struggling with my own view of life and death, what I eventually found out was simplicity.

And then, when it was being whittled down more and more

I just had to know what a face was, conclusively.

You can tell it’s a face just by the dots, you can tell it’s a hand just by the circle, it doesn’t have to be an adult or a child or anything like that, it looks like you’re drawing a child, but it’s a human being.

I thought that everyone was getting too many things mixed up, and I was getting too many things mixed up.

I think that everyone has too many things in their head, and I have too many things in my head.

When I erased and erased a lot of things, they turned into dots.

It’s like the face became a dot as I was drawing it.

After all, I really wanted to draw people.

I like people and I prefer to have narrative in my pictures.

I found that even a dot can produce a laughing or angry face, and that’s how I got my current face.

– Please tell us about your image of Shiga and your future goals.

In the meantime, I’m planning to do early morning work all the time.

If it doesn’t interfere with my painting, it’s the rhythm of my life.

That’s where the idea for the painting came from, and it’s an amazing necessity for me.

A full-time painter is not necessarily a great thing in this world, and I honestly don’t think it matters if you eat or not eat from painting as far as artistry is concerned.

If I do this until retirement, at the age of 65, I will turn this place into a gallery, or make a separate studio, or something like that, or make my own solo exhibition/place of my own to do it.

This current location is in Gifu, which is a bit of a rural area, but we are working hard right now to get people from Tokyo and Osaka to come here and work in various places.

How do you think art can spread more?

I often think that so many people say “art is difficult”.

I think the reason why the denominator of people who say, “Hey, I don’t understand art and stuff” is increasing so much is the responsibility on the part of the artists. The reason why it’s not being done in an interesting way.

So, I can make something better, or someone else can

I feel that if we make something that people think, “Wow, that’s nice,” it will spread.

I think that will change, little by little, as more and more people, one by one, join us.

– What are your future plans?

On Thursday, November 10 through Sunday, November 13, 2022, there will be a new space called Art Villa in Shibuya, Tokyo.

We will be exhibiting there. We will also have permanent exhibits in Kyoto and Tokyo, so we hope to see you there.