Yuko Shimizu on Haruki Murakami
by New York-based Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu has been featured on Lost At E Minor several times over the past couple of years. I love the sense of drama her work conveys, the apparent colour clashes that somehow gel despite pre-existing rules about their compatibility. We checked in with her to see what she’s been up to of late: ‘I just came back from a week in Georgian Bay in Canada. No internet, no cell phone reception for a week. It was fantastic! Now I am getting ready for a group show at Visual Arts Gallery in New York that opens in September. I am creating two new 40” x 60” drawings. I’m also slowly refurbishing my website here and there’. What other creative medium — outside of illustration/art - do you most get into? ‘I love books. I admire writers who write really well about characters that are so different from who they are. My favorites are Haruki Murakami and Yukio Mishima. I know, I always say I hate Japan and everything Japanese and … look at what I am doing! I am reading Hotel New Hampshire [John Irving] and Kitchen Confidential [Anthony Bourdain] right now, both of which are so interesting and fun to read in completely different ways. My studio-mate Marcos Chin, his boyfriend and I have a mini-book club now, and we often read the same book together at the same time. Marcos’ boyfriend had already finished with Hotel New Hampshire and complained I am too slow! I have to catch up on my readings’. If you teleport yourself anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and what would you be doing? ‘I am in Sesimbra, south of Lisbon, in Portugal, watching the ocean, eating fresh seafood and drinking white wine. And I don’t even drink, usually!’ Do you ever get illustrator’s block, and if so, what do you do to overcome it? ‘The older we get, we learn not to struggle when suffering. When you get drowned, the best way is to not panic. When you have a block, the best you can do is walk away and do something else. Get a good night sleep, don’t think about it’.
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Yuko Shimizu’s Ultimate PC illustration
I love the bold use of color and dramatic thematic overtones that characterises the work of New York-based illustrator, and Lost At E Minor contributor, Yuko Shimizu. This award-winning piece was for Microsoft’s Ultimate PC project, in which artists were asked to create series of five personal works using their PC instead of their Mac to showcase in Microsoft’s new experimental art site.
Yuko Shimizu’s PS96 Bronx mural
As part of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity organization whose mission it is to fight poverty in New York City, Lost At E Minor contributor and in-demand illustrator in her own right, Yuko Shimizu — in collaboration with designer Stefan Sagmeister — recently completed an eleven panel mural at PS96 in The Bronx. Read more
Obama’s loss traced to Yuko Shimizu
My friend and artist Emily Gearhart just sent me this video. It’s probably the funniest video I have ever seen. Oh, what a great way to remind your friends to vote. You can customise it with your friend’s name and then send it out them. Fun, fun, fun.
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If you haven’t heard of illustrative designer Zeptonn, then you should have. He’s the creative force uniting a group of talented designers who operate on the brilliant design site Black Rock Collective. Read more
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We asked Arizona-based artist Joe Sorren what we would have been if he hadn’t been handed the most ridiculously generous serving of artistic talent: ‘Art historian and conservationalist. Or a botanist. Or I’d work with horses. It would be interesting to be behind the scenes in politics, at least for a while. Or maybe a studio musician, or invent games, or a … I would rather paint’. Ah, we agree.
Legendary pop culture artist and Agit Pop founder Ron English will be a guest compiler of an upcoming issue of our email newsletter, writing about his favorite cultural discoveries. To read Ron’s edition of Lost At E Minor, simply sign up to our weekly newsletter. It’s free, you win!
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