Mizuno Ryusei

2012.10.13

The loving embrace of the earth and the sun

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If I hesitate, I lose the moment to encapsulate the intense emotions I feel

A. When I paint outdoors, I don’t waver or choose a wrong color, because to capture strong emotions in a moment, there is no time to hesitate. In addition, my pictures are not created to accurately present their subject like photographs. After settling in, how do I know when or where to start… the horizon, the clouds, or the land? The answer just descends into my mind. There’s a sort of ping! And I unhesitatingly dive into the moment.

If the location is pleasant, I’m sure I can paint a pleasant picture (laughs).

Ryusei Mizuno Beautiful Sunrise, oil, size22.7×15.8cm / Beautiful Ferris Wheel, oil, size 17.9×13.9cm

Q. I can see a Ferris wheel in the picture. Where did you paint it?

A. I wanted to paint the sun rising over the sea. I often went to Wakasu facing Tokyo Bay, which is at the approach to Tokyo Gate Bridge. At home I would load my car with my bicycle and art stuff and drive for 40 minutes or so and park. Then with the canvas on my back, I’d cycle to the seaside, where I painted. From this point, this Ferris wheel can be seen in the direction of Tokyo Disneyland. On another occasion, I saw the moon still hanging in the sky while the sun was rising, and between the girders of the gate bridge, I could see a snow-capped and pure white Mt. Fuji; I felt I was the only one privileged to see that magnificent view. One of my other painting spots was at Cape Inubo, down at the easternmost tip of Honshu, the main island of Japan.

Q. I guess creating this series was pretty tough…

A. It was a little hard in the cold season, like doing one of those ascetic disciplines (laughs). I left home about half past three in the morning. Hongo Street (in Tokyo) looked completely different from its usual self; the atmosphere of the sodium vapor lamps and people walking at that hour were also different; and my head was fuzzed like with jet lag. Although the places where I painted were common locations of Tokyo, by changing the time of visiting, I felt as if I was in a foreign country and this allowed me to encounter something very new. I’m sure I was able to paint such scenery with fresh feelings. The rising sun before my eyes was awe-inspiring. Every time, the atmosphere was different; so, colors were also different. In a hazy morning, the sun appeared so dramatically that I wanted to shout, “Stop! Stop time!” But I did paint it; so now we can see it anytime.

Production scenes of the artist

  1. Yes, it is! I thought it would be great on a bedroom wall; how wonderful to look at that picture upon waking! Moreover, in this exhibition series, I feel the curved shape of your signature is also special.

A.How good of you! Thank you very much for noticing. This time, it has a meaning. For this sunrise series, I went out on more than 90 mornings, but the moment of the sun rising was never the same, not once was it the same, and I was deeply touched every time. In this fantastic overwhelming astronomical show, which has been repeated endlessly up until today, I, the earth, and the sun are participating; I have a strong bodily sensation of such an image. Then, I thought the sun is not really moving. The body and eyes looking at the rising sun, are now standing on the earth, a globe rotating on an oblique axis, and all are moving in the direction of the sun; when I grasped this image, I had an idea, “Yes, if I turn this finished painting on its side, then, the viewer can enjoy the perspective of seeing from the universe.” Naturally we spend everyday of our lives upright and complying with gravity; so, until you become used to seeing from this new perspective, you have to consciously switch your brain, and at the beginning, it might look strange. But I believe there will be a discovery in the future like the moment when a child has finally managed to ride a bicycle. To ensure the picture can be displayed by rotating 90 degrees, namely, the viewpoint from the universe, I signed my name in a curve within a circle; readable from either way.

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