Orimi Imazato

The rain is beautiful.
Someday, I want to be able to capture this rain beautifully in my art.
I still remember thinking this as a child, watching the rain from the window.
Looking back, that might have been the beginning of my desire to express myself.
My mother was a painter, so I naturally sta...

The rain is beautiful.
Someday, I want to be able to capture this rain beautifully in my art.
I still remember thinking this as a child, watching the rain from the window.
Looking back, that might have been the beginning of my desire to express myself.
My mother was a painter, so I naturally started drawing from a young age.
My favorite artist as a child was also Leonardo da Vinci, like my mother.
That’s why I used to prefer drawing realistic paintings.
Back then, my drawings were a way for me to grow with every stroke. Being praised by my family and those around me was one of the charms of drawing for me.

Also, my family was not wealthy compared to others in Japan, so I often had to restrain my desires as a child. I was greedy.
But in my drawings, it was different. If I could draw something I wanted, I could possess it.
Even things that didn’t exist in reality, I could obtain them within my drawings.
It was like creating something out of nothing…
Through art, I gradually found myself being led into unknown worlds.
Yet, to imagine means that perhaps somewhere in this world, or in some part of history, those things actually exist.
Maybe they exist in the afterlife.
In this way, through art, I feel awe at the sensation of being connected to everything in the universe.

Also, when I was ten years old, I encountered a certain painting one summer.
That painting seemed to signify resurrection.
A single beam of light emerging from darkness—that’s how it felt.
Since then,That was how my world of art has been too.
There always seems to be a shadow lurking somewhere, and I envision scenes of breaking free from it.
Perhaps it’s because I naturally tend to focus on the negative aspects of things.
In the past, I’ve even suffered from depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
However, I believe that experiencing rock bottom allows one to empathize with others and support them.
And I want to live strongly.
Presumptuously, I aspire to create art that breaks the shackles of people’s suffering and elevates someone to a higher place.