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’.
Tagged: yuko shimizu
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Dear Japan art event in New York
Come out to a gallery in Soho, New York, on Saturday afternoon and purchase art for your home for a good cause. The one evening event Dear Japan has been organized by a group of Japanese artists who live in New York. It features 170 illustrators and fine artists, and all the works are $200 or under. It’s a small portion of what most of the participating artists would normally sell their work for. Of course, I am donating for this good cause, too. Read more
BLOW UP: featuring Hanuka, Shimizu, Weber
Three illustrators from vastly different backgrounds — Sam Weber (Canada), Yuko Shimizu (Japan), and Tomer Hanuka (Israel) — are meeting at the crossroads of a distinct American aesthetic to examine their new-found artistic voices through personal mythologies, broken narratives and remixed identities. Each of the illustrators featured as part of BLOW UP (running at New York’s Society of Illustrators until October 16) created new works to be shown for the first time in this exhibition. Read more
I love the bold use of colour and playful sense of composition in the work of New York-based illustrator Yuko Shimizu. This one in particular is giving me a sudden urge for triple maple and walnut ice cream, with a generous splash of chocolate on top.
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Avertisements from Playboy Magazine: Nov and Dec 1962
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Anna Utopia Giordano has created these Popbottles for an art exhibtion as a way to raise ‘social awareness on topics such as alcohol abuse by teens, alcohol abuse by pregnant women, the disinterest of some parents towards their children (abandoned for days between toys and video games), [and] how far marketers can go to gain the attention of their younger customers’. Oh, ok. We just think they look kinda cool. Read more
How the Internet’s biggest sites looked at launch
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Viktor Hertz, who was behind the awesome Pictogram movie poster series and the equally impressive Honest Logos, has resurfaced with a new set of work: Pictogram music posters, depicting a few chosen songs in different genres. Brilliant! Again. Read more
London-based artist Helena Maratheftis was recently commissioned to make this awesome human skull mug. Wonder if Glenn Danzig was the one who requested it?
God save the Queen. Oh, and Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones and Paul Cook too. Read more
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The Adam Carolla Show just recently broke the Guiness World Record for Most Downloaded Podcast. I’m a huge fan. It’s free and it keeps me entertained for a couple hours every day while I work. Read more
Really dig the Lovecraft vibe of this Capriole collection by Iris van Herpen. The weird wormy thing looks like a painting I did inspired by by Yog Sathoth.
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Get lost in a daydream or a craving for something sweet while gazing at these cool sculptures by Brooklyn-based WiNK WiNK PONY. Made using clay, tree bark, wood, and mossy moss.
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This pendant by Portland designer Stephanie Stimek hangs from an eighteen inch 14 carat gold chain. Made from a Japanese quail egg, the entire shell has been coated in plastic for strength and is available for purchase through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more
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