I work with traditional Japanese painting materials. In this work, crystal powder, or "kessho-sue," is sprinkled on the background. Aside from the rarity of the painting material, it depicts a woman whose face is a rose. I used to paint only women to express women's feelings, but when a friend of mine died of cancer, I learned that roses have a beneficial effect on illnesses and started painting them. At first, I painted the figures and roses separately, but in recent years I have been painting this series because I am fascinated by the anonymity and the mysterious world of the face as a rose. The frustration of not being able to read the facial expressions stirs the viewer's imagination and makes the paintings more complex.
