N's works

Namiko / Japanese artist

｢なみさん、闇は美しいんですよ｣画家である友人から言われた一言をきっかけにNamikoは再び絵を描き始めた。
1983年神奈川県生まれ。
優秀な兄と弟に挟まれた普通の少女は｢女は愛嬌｣と母に励まされて育った。
頭脳こそ一般的であったものの、感情、感覚においては秀でていたNamikoは幼い頃から絵を描くことが好きだった。
10代後半頃から作品の中に裸の女性像が現れ始め、家族や友人から気味悪がられた為に絵を描く事をやめた。
愛嬌を振り撒くことで周囲から認められ受け入れられる事を学んだ彼女が本来の人間らしい自身の心の闇を表現しようと再び絵を描き出したのは2016年の末。
作風は周囲に溶け込むことで寂しさや不安を紛らわせてきた自身の化身、カメレオンを水彩とパステルで鮮やかに描くものであった。
その後現在のAcrylic pouringと出会う。
浮かび上がるcellと呼ばれる模様がまさに自分の中から続々と湧き上がる想い(細胞)と重なり、その技法を使って日々の苦悩や人を想う気持ちを美しく変化させる事が出来る喜びを知る。
現在Namikoは三人の血の繋がらない子供の母として生きているが、再び舞い戻ったアートという鍵を手に、かつて封印したはずのパンドラの箱の中身を想像し、震えている。

“There’s beauty in darkness, Nami-san,” a painter friend once told her.
It was those words that made Namiko pick up a brush and start painting again.

An ordinary girl, with an older brother and a younger brother, both of whom became school teachers,
Namiko grew up hearing her mother’s saying “the most important thing for a girl is her charm.”
She did not excel in school like her brothers.
Instead, she had an artistic sensibility and emotional intelligence and enjoyed painting since she was little.

During her teen years, nude female figures began to appear in her paintings.
Her friends and family all thought they were too strange. Namiko stopped painting altogether.

By the time she was an adult, Namiko had mastered the art of spreading her charm for people’s acceptance.
It was not until the end of 2016 that she decided to express the original, dark, yet human side of her being through painting.

This time, the subject of her vividly drawn watercolor and pastel paintings manifested itself as a chameleon,
her alter ego, a creature that weathered loneliness and anxiety by blending in with her surroundings.

Eventually, she discovered acrylic pouring, her current form of artistic expression.
The way patterns emerged, forming what are called “cells” reminded her of her own stirring feelings that continue to rise from within.
Using this technique, she has come to experience the joy in sublimating daily anguishes and wistful longings into something concrete and beautiful.

These days, Namiko’s primary role is being a mother to three stepchildren.
Yet, holding the key called “art” in her hands, she cannot help but tremble with excitement,
fantasizing about what could be inside that Pandora’s box she thought she had sealed long ago.