EXKLUSIV
MAGAZINE INTERVIEW This
article was published in Polish fashion/life style magazine Exklusiv,
February 2005 issue |
| Agata Nowicka: What have you been up to lately, Yuko? |
| Yuko
Shimizu: Bunch of different things…. Some illustration
jobs for magazines, preparing for the last class of semester for my
second year drawing class at School
of Visual Arts…. But most of all, I am doing a lot of thinking now a days, looking back the whole year. I really had a very fortunate year this year. Worked with lots of different clients on lots of different projects. Taught a few different classes in different levels at SVA, which has been very rewarding. I got my Artist Visa…. And I am thinking, now what? I worked almost non-stop the whole year, most of the time even without weekends. I needed that whole experience of doing these all and supporting myself as an artist. Next year, on top of doing those things, I want to work on more personal work, or longer term projects. I have to keep sketchbook and draw random things for just ten minutes a day, just to let things in my subconscious out… So, I am thinking, and planning about next year now. |
| Agata: Before you became an illustrator you worked as a manager (me toooo!!!!!). Tell me, what pushed you to leave it all and become an illustrator? Or maybe you were born an illustrator and only had to wait for the right time to start? |
| Yuko:
It was probably both… I have always been drawing and painting,
ever since I was little, ever since even before I knew how to write
my name, I was already drawing. No one in my family was an artist.
My family is very typical conservative Japanese family. My parents
didn’t want me to go to art school, and wanted me to study something
more practical. So I studied advertising and marketing and got a business
degree. Those two majors are the most creative of business field,
you know… I worked in a trading company in Japan for 11 years
doing PR. It was not a bad job, I enjoyed, but didn’t love it.
In Japan, when you graduate from college and start working in a company, you seldom ever switch jobs. So, when you see a 50years old woman working in your office, you pretty much know that is your future. Scary, huh? Office work, same things over and over, you see your future that is not what you want to be.. Doesn’t this sound depressing or what? So, at around age 25, I was in corporate Japan getting into early mid-life crisis. When I was between 12-15, I grew up in New York because of my father’s business. Conservative Japanese society was so not for me. Then what you need to do? Yes, I gotta get out of there! At first, I was going to go to business school, like the top business school in US. I started saving up for it, checking out the best business schools, and then talked to a Japanese friend of mine who lived in US for like 20 years. She told me “In US, to get a graduate degree means that you will be committed to the field for the rest of your life. You have to really think about if that is what you want to do”. And I was like, “No, no. I don’t want to be in business for rest of my life. I want to be an artist!” So, that is how I decided to quit my job and moved to New York, and became an art student. Because I never studied art, I started school again as a freshman (first year in college) and did two years with 18 year old classmates. I was already past 30. It was an experience. I am still friends with many of them though. I switched to graduate program after that, and graduated in 2003. At first, when I came back to school, I felt like I took a long way and wasted so many years. Some of my instructors were younger than I was…. But, you know, everything you experience in your life, you learn from them, and nothing is wasted. I walked a very meaningful long way to get here, and I don’t regret it even a bit. |
| Agata: You mix traditional techniques with computer's aid. Can you tell us a little bit how you do it? And which tool you definitely couldn't go without? |
| Yuko: Basically my line drawings are hand-done, and my colors are on computer. I draw on paper with black India ink and Japanese calligraphy brushes. Scan the drawing in, and color it on Photoshop. I probably cannot live without my Wacom pen tablet, also lasso tool. I lasso everything. People think I am nuts! |
| Agata: What is the best thing about drawing/being an illustrator? |
| Yuko: You do what you love for living |
| Agata: You are known for your brave and unique style. It seems that there's no angle of a human figure you couldn't draw and perspective in your drawings is just amazing. So ok, there must be "something" you can't/don't like to draw. What is it???? |
| Yuko:
Of course, there are a lot of things I cannot draw. There are more
things I cannot draw than I can, to be honest. And I think it is totally OK. Every illustrator has his/her strength and weakness. You get known for the work you are good at, and that is why there has to be many different illustrators doing different work. My strength is figures. I can draw figures in pretty much any position I imagine in my head. However, I am not good at landscapes or cityscapes. If a client wants to hire someone to do an awesome landscape piece, the chances are, they are not going to call me. I cannot do western perspective well. I can do it OK enough to get by, but not well. I do more of Eastern perspective. Foreground, middle ground, background, and boom, you see the distance in a picture. |
| Agata: What is the funniest story about you (can't help of thinking about the whole hello kitty story, but perhaps you have a better one :) ? |
| Yuko:
Oh, yes, Hello Kitty story… I get so many e-mails from prestigious
publishers from around the world asking to have interview with me
for Hello Kitty’s 30th anniversary. So, I had to put one line
on my bio stating I did not create Hello Kitty. Yuko Shimizu is such
a common name in Japan, I swear at least a thousand of us with the
same exact name. Other funny stories… hmmmm…. I get e-mails often from people with weird fetishes. They think I am one of them and they usually tell me that they are so happy that they found their peers. Actually as far as I know I don’t have any fetish. I just very much interested in knowing about different people’s different obsessions. As long as e-mail messages are not creepy, it is amusing to receive e-mails from them. I learn so much about that there are different worlds out there, which is inspiring in terms of creating my own world in drawings. |
| Do you ever find that you are subconsciously drawing yourself? |
| Yuko: I think to the certain extent, everyone does. Because you are the person you see the most often. If you need a quick hand gesture, or something, you use yourself, right? So, it is natural a lot of artists draw figures that they look like them. |
| Agata: Do you pull faces when you draw facial expressions? |
| Yuko: All the time! |
| Agata: Who are your favorite contemporary artists? |
| Yuko:
Wow, there are so many… let’s see….. Matthew
Barney, definitely for he creates his own world so well.
I really respect and admire his work. Raymond
Pettibon has always been my favorite, I mean, when it
comes to drawing with brushes with comic influence, he is the king!
Marcel
Dzama, for his dumb beautiful drawings. Neo
Rauch is an amazing painter with such original contents.
John
Wesley has always been my art hero. When it comes to illustration, definitely Istvan Banyai, He is the man. He can draw so well, and he always have great smart ideas too. Paul Pope, my dear friend, and “long lost art twin”. I think I would have been him if I was a male artist who grew up in Ohio, or he would have been me if he was a female artist grew up in Tokyo. Bjork, oh come on, she is a “contemporary artist” too, right? Then so must be Quentin Tarantino and Wong Ka-Wai. Jean Paul Gaultier is my fashion star. … OK, this list is going to be ridiculously long, so I have to stop here for now. |
| Agata: What is your best advice to young illustrator-wannabes? What is the most important thing you teach your students? |
| Yuko: Listen to your own voice inside your heart. Be who you are, and create your work only you can create. Try to create work that no one has ever seen before, or create work because that is something you want to see. |
| Agata: Which are your favorite magazines? |
| Yuko:
I am a magazine subscription mania. I subscribe to so many of them
it is out of control. Here in US, if you subscribe, the prices are
a lot cheaper. So my mailbox is always filled with magazines. I love Fred Woodward (graphic designer)’s work, so definitely GQ. Interview Magazine, I like the aesthetics of photos and design. I have been subscribing to it ever since I moved to NY, so about 6 years already. I like men’s magazines better than women’s, CARGO is fun. The New Yorker and New York Magazine both have great articles. I just worked on cover for Utne Magazine. Their articles are wonderful too. OK, this list is going to be ridiculously long so I have to stop here as well… |
| Agata: February Exklusiv is called "wet". When you think of water you.... |
| Yuko: Want to swim! Although I have hydrophobia and I cannot go into the water that is deeper than my heart. Of course, I cannot swim. How sad. That is why I draw lots and lots of swimmers. And my favorite movie of all time is The Big Blue by Luc Besson, you know, about free divers and dolphins.. |
| Agata: Are you happy? |
| Yuko: When you get tons of work, you get stuck in your studio don’t talk to anyone, and work 15 hours straight. You cancel plans with friends. When you don’t get work for a day or two, you feel like no one wants you and no one will ever call you again because your work sucks… Either way you cannot win, that is the life of freelancer… but you know what? I do what I always wanted to do for living, and even though I may complain about how much work I have to do, I love it. I am happy. I am not in ultimate happy state of mind, but that is because I am not Buddha. I often feel how fortunate I am with my job, and friends and families and all the nice people I am surrounded by. |
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