Ikeda ayako is a painter who outputs her emotions in the form of portraits. She does not aim to express the details of the object, such as colors and outlines, but reflects her feelings, thoughts, and the movements she feels within herself. Painting is like a form of self-expression; she sketches her spirit in the form of paintings. It seems that many of your works are portraits. Could you start by explaining your work? -My work is influenced by my mood at the time, so I don't always have a specific theme that I draw, but I often draw portraits. However, I often draw portraits with the expression of my feelings at the time. I have loved drawing pictures since I was a child, and I often drew people. It is not intentional that I still like to draw people, but when I thought about expressing my emotions by directly reflecting them in my paintings, I felt that landscapes and abstractions did not fit. Somehow, I feel that portraits are the best way to directly express my emotions. vivid r_02, 53×45.5cm The people in your works are painted with random colors, and not with realism. Are the motifs imaginary? -No. Imagination is not my thing, so when I paint, I have a prototype in mind. But sometimes I wonder if the prototype is helpful because when I see the finished work, it is not what I imagined. The color of each part of the body is decided while looking at the image, so sometimes the skin color is green or some other random color. As I mentioned earlier, the painting reflects my feelings, so when I look at the finished work, it brings back the feelings I had at that time. I am convinced only when I finish a painting, not while I am working on it. Dedicated to P_07, 19.5×25.4cm Did you always want to be a painter? -No, but I have loved drawing since I was a child. I can't create a story like a comic book, but I can draw, so I decided to go to art school. The school's tendency was to tell me to draw the whole body, but I found faces more interesting. At school, I mainly studied illustration, but as I learned more, I became uncomfortable with "client work. I wanted to draw what I wanted to draw. You said that your works reflect your emotions at the time. But does what you want to draw change depending on the motif? -It depends, but I don't really have a flow. I think I tend to paint portraits when I'm busy with something. So I think I am expressing my emotions through painting. Last fall, I picked up a sparrow and spent about two days with it, and for some reason I felt the urge to draw something other than a portrait. So at that time, I was drawing motifs other than faces. Maybe the motif will change, or maybe it won't, depending on who I meet or what I see in the future.