Tatsuro Kiuchi

For me, who has been making illustrations for clients for many years, my top priority is how I would spend the rest of my life. To be frank, I have not had anything I have wanted to make, and found my outlet in helping clients solve problems by drawing pictures they wanted. However, when I reached t...

For me, who has been making illustrations for clients for many years, my top priority is how I would spend the rest of my life. To be frank, I have not had anything I have wanted to make, and found my outlet in helping clients solve problems by drawing pictures they wanted. However, when I reached the age of 50 a few years ago, I began wanting to paint pictures of things which genuinely interested me. Perhaps the time was ripe for me.

Since I was a child, I loved animals and was not keen on people. When I see the news of things that are happening on earth daily, I am always struck by the inability of humans to understand each other. I also have a fear of the existence of human beings as creatures who are incapable of empathy. I want to depict the spheres where such humans exist on earth.

I think my artwork is significantly influenced by Tonalism as typified by Whistler. In other words, I emphasize the gradation of light and dark over colors and aim to create space with depth and deep shadows. I also try to capture the invisible and the intangible within the images, but they are not just temperature, atmosphere or mood which artists often refer to, but are emotions and words which swirl in space. I depict them not as graphic design or fonts, but as physical matters which exist on earth to literally make the invisible visible in the images.