wakamono to machi
(cityscape with youth)

1997

acrylic and oil on canvas
910mm x 1165mm

At the end of the previous year, Nagakute Senior High School commissioned me to create this painting.

There was a deadline of three months which was was both a long time and a short time for me. It was the first time that I had been given a specific image and size to which to work. Also with the ***exhibition*** close at hand, I was very busy. I extended the deadline by one month. To tell the truth, until the beginning of March, I felt that my previous works were better than this one. I could not tell myself that I'd done well. It was a continual process of trial and error on the canvas. Many time I had to change the composition and the rough sketches.

It was not until the end of March that I got out of this "dark tunnel". I was able to think that in fact this was my best work and I was able to put down my brush.

I think I could understand a little what Ryunosuke Akutagana meant when he said "There is no quiescence in art. Without progress, there will be deteoration"

[translated from Bulletin Nagakute no.61]