And that’s when you started painting?
I’d painted when I was
younger, but it had been a while. This was my debut solo show overseas, so it
was going to be way different than the solo shows I’d done previously as a designer
or illustrator. Taka had been the curator last time, but now he’d be coming as a regular guest, so I was especially serious about making the work, like I was really
going to make sure I got a reaction out of him. Because
of that, Taka ended up saying my work was seriously good and had a high level
of completion, and even bought a piece. The guy whose words had
once stung was now saying I had something special. I was like, “Hell yeah!” 15 or so friends of mine from Japan had also come to town at their own expense, so I was really happy.
From there you must have started getting lots
of solo and group shows overseas.
The owner of Honor Fraser
Gallery in LA came to that first solo show and asked me to do another at her place, so after New York, I headed to LA and did “Vanity Drunko” (2007). That was
probably when I finally started to think I could make a living with art. Then
once I got back to Japan, I now had an offer from Taka Ishii...