Are you currently feeling a sense of isolation or suffocation that you cannot put into words in your daily life?
The friction of human relationships, vague anxieties about the future, or the frustration of feeling like your existence is being buried within society—everyone carries such heavy burdens. However, true art possesses the power to fundamentally save your wounded soul, transcending logic.
Why does art save you? It is because art is the ultimate tool to affirm your “loneliness,” “isolation,” and “suffering” as they are, and to sublimate them into a beautiful story of “resurrection” and “liberation.”
Art is not merely a decoration for a room. It is a spiritual antidote that speaks directly to your soul and liberates you from the suffering of daily life.
“Most people think of success as something you get. But in reality, success is something you give.”
Henry Ford, the automobile king, left these words. This statement is directly linked to the secret of healing every suffering in your life, not just business success.
When you feel lonely or distressed, your heart is filled with a sense of lack—”what you have lost” or “what you have failed to obtain.” However, when you encounter the deep thoughts and the spirit of service someone else has poured into their art, a mysterious energy flows into your heart.
To give. That is the truth that heals the human heart most deeply and leads you to success. I am painting to serve you. I have written this text with all of my being for you, who are living your life so earnestly right now.
Why Have I Abandoned the Canvas and Brush to Serve You Through Digital Media and Giclée Prints?
Why is painting digitally without a brush the greatest service I can provide for you?
When you hear the word “painter,” what image comes to your mind? Many people imagine an atelier filled with the scent of oil paint, where the artist stands before a canvas wielding a brush. However, I have abandoned that traditional canvas and brush. I create all of my work digitally.
Do you know why? It is because I am convinced that utilizing the highest technology available in our modern age is the greatest sincerity and service I can offer to you, who will receive my art.
Creating digitally allows me to transcend the limitations of manual labor, enabling me to express the “perfect composition” and “infinite gradients” I wish to deliver to your brain with absolute, millimeter-perfect precision.
What kind of astonishing experience will the ultimate giclée print technique bring to you?
Works polished to the extreme digitally do not end within a screen. Using the “giclée print technique,” the highest-level fine art printing technology currently available, I fix the images onto carefully selected, premium-grade printmaking paper.
Through this technique, the vivid colors inherent to digital art and the warm, organic texture of the paper fuse at a high dimension that will make your eyes widen. You can enjoy the overwhelming beauty released from those surfaces from the comfort of your home, with all five senses, at any time.
My works are all produced in limited editions. Unlike mass-produced posters, they possess a special value created exclusively for you. I promise you a unique experience that is different from everything else.
Why Can a Name Inspired by Van Gogh’s “Ear Incident” Stay Close to Your Loneliness?
What is the promise hidden in the name Takamizawa Mimi to save you?
My name is Takamizawa Mimi. I am a Japanese painter born on September 5, 1995. What kind of impression did you have when you heard this strange name, “Mimi” (Ear)?
In fact, this name was inspired by the “ear-cutting incident” of the famous genius painter Vincent van Gogh. Since I was a child, I have held a deep interest in the people we call artists. When I encountered van Gogh’s intensely sorrowful life and his works that left his soul behind, I decided to live as a painter.
What does knowing van Gogh’s story mean for your life? During his lifetime, he lived in extreme loneliness, isolation, and spiritual suffering. Yet, the paintings he created continue to save the hearts of people all over the world even today.
“I want to create something heart-consoling in my paintings, like music.”
This famous quote by van Gogh is the starting point of my career and my promise to you. Through this name “Mimi,” I bear the role of delivering that “heart-consoling” essence—which van Gogh sought—to you in the modern age.
Is there any value in art that does not symbolize loneliness, isolation, suffering, and liberation to heal you?
Let me be clear. Art that does not symbolize loneliness, isolation, suffering, and the subsequent liberation is completely meaningless to you.
Can a landscape painting that is merely “pretty,” or a design that simply chases superficial trends, heal your deep sorrows? When you are truly hurting, only the true screams of a soul born from navigating the same deep suffering can stay by your side.
My work is carved with human loneliness and suffering. But this is not to drive you to despair. It is to have you experience the “resurrection” and “liberation” of the heart that rises from within it. A painter must be a “doctor” who heals the wounds of your soul.
Why Does Kiichiro Toyoda’s Life-Risking Quote Give You Powerful Courage Right Now?
How will the words, “Without such fools, nothing new would be born in this world,” change your daily life?
Here, I would like to introduce you to a startling quote by one of my favorite great figures, Kiichiro Toyoda, who laid the foundation for Japan’s automobile industry. These words possess such powerful energy that they might make your brain cells tremble just by hearing them.
“I do it because it is difficult. I do it because no one else will, or can. I might be a fool, but without such fools, nothing new would be born in this world. Therein lies the fun of life, and the purpose of my own existence. If I collapse because I couldn’t do it, it means my strength was insufficient, so I will disembowel myself with dignity.”
How is that? This overwhelming resolve—doesn’t it make something hot well up in your own chest?
In today’s world, living safely without fearing failure is what is recommended. However, without a “fool” who confronts difficulties that no one else does, new value that moves you could never be born in this world.
How does the attitude of a person who lives with resolve solve your anxieties?
This quote by Mr. Kiichiro Toyoda will have a wonderful, positive influence on your daily life. If you are currently feeling anxious about taking on a new challenge, thinking, “What if I fail?” or “What if people think I’m strange?”, please remember these words.
“Because it is difficult, it is worth doing.”
The moment you can think that, the anxiety covering your eyes will turn into a pleasant stimulus. A resolve so strong that one would be prepared to “disembowel oneself” blows away our fragility and gives us the courage to take action as soon as possible.
I paint with the spirit of Mr. Kiichiro. I dedicate my life every day to the fusion of digital and giclée that no one else does, and to themes that approach the essence of humanity. Please receive that life-risking energy from my work. That will become the powerful driving force that propels your life forward.
Why is 95 Percent or More of a Work’s Quality Decided by a “Perfect Composition”?
Did you know that the masterpieces of Velázquez, van Gogh, and Hokusai actually share the same structure, like siblings?
Have you ever wondered why your heart is so captivated when you see an excellent painting or film, and why you can’t look away? Is it because the colors are beautiful? Or because the brushwork is unique?
Actually, no. More than 95 percent of the quality of a two-dimensional work is decided by “composition.” This is an immutable fact based on the mechanism of the human brain.
Let me tell you an astonishing fact. The masterpieces of geniuses that have remained in history—Velázquez’s Las Meninas, van Gogh’s The Night Café, Vermeer’s The Art of Painting, and Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Although they are from completely different countries and eras, they are actually all constructed with the same composition. They possess an identical spatial structure, as if they were blood-related siblings.
What is the astonishing secret that van Gogh’s true greatness lies not in color, but in “perfect composition”?
Many people mistakenly believe that van Gogh’s brilliance lies in his “rough, thick brushwork” or “vivid colors.” However, that is not the essence of his skill. To focus only on such superficial parts is rather a blasphemy against van Gogh’s work.
The foundation of van Gogh as a painter is the “perfect composition” he learned thoroughly through the study of Japanese ukiyo-e, especially Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. Interestingly, Hokusai and Hiroshige learned Western perspective and composition from Dutch studies (Rangaku) that were popular in Japan at the time. In other words, the perfect composition of Velázquez and Vermeer crossed the sea to reach Hokusai in Japan, and it traveled around again to be inherited by van Gogh in Europe.
For example, think of van Gogh’s The Night Café. Even when we see that painting on a poster or postcard where the thick, physical texture of the paint is not reproduced at all, we are moved and think it is “wonderful.” Why? Because the composition is perfect.
The blue window frame at the very front emphasizes the foreground, and the strong contrast of yellow and black in the back pulls the eye deep into the distance. A visual structure is completed that keeps the human eye from getting bored by having the foreground and background pull at each other. This is the essential mechanism that fascinates you.
Why Has Much of Modern Painting Declined to the Point Where One Cannot Look for Even 10 Seconds?
What is the biggest misunderstanding painters committed due to the invention of photography?
Here, I must inform you of a serious problem facing the current painting world. Have you ever felt, when looking at recent contemporary art or paintings, “I don’t really get this,” or “I’d get bored after looking at it for 10 seconds”?
You felt that way not because your sensibility is dull, but because the quality of the work itself has declined.
The cause lies in the “invention of photography” in the 19th century. Painters at that time felt a tremendous sense of crisis regarding the appearance of photography, which could accurately capture the subject in front of them. And they made a huge misunderstanding.
They became obsessed with the “technique of accurately capturing objects” like a photograph in an encyclopedia, and forgot the importance of the “eternal composition” that had been passed down since ancient times. Or, in their attempt to differentiate themselves from photography, they abandoned the traditional composition that satisfies the human brain.
What kind of reassurance does the fact that the human brain and eye have not changed for thousands of years bring to you?
The technique of accurately depicting things and the technique of creating a good painting are completely different things. When criticizing Velázquez’s Las Meninas, many people praise his “magnificent brushwork,” but that is not the essence.
Placing a canvas in the foreground to create depth, overlapping the figures in the middle to create distance, and placing the strongest light-and-dark contrast on the door and the King in the very back. This perfect calculation that guides the eye is the reason it has continued to fascinate people for hundreds of years. This structure is completely consistent with how Hokusai places the giant wave in the foreground and gives the Mount Fuji in the back a strong presence in The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
The human eye and the structure of the human brain have hardly changed for thousands of years. Therefore, the standard for deciding the quality of a two-dimensional work will never change.
While many painters have abandoned this essence, films, manga, and animation have continued to use the importance of composition, boasting global prosperity. The reason why director Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and the films of Yasujiro Ozu were acclaimed worldwide is because they incorporated the perfect composition they learned from ukiyo-e into the screen.
The root of the technique that keeps the human eye from getting bored is composition and gradients. An excellent work has the power to keep your eyes pinned to it, making you want to watch it yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I am thoroughly researching this eternal composition and breathing life into all my works to satisfy your brain from the bottom of my heart.
Why Do I Devote Every Moment Other Than Sleep to Serving You?
What am I delivering to you with my obsession of working 15.5 hours a day, 5640 hours a year?
I was not an excellent student. Rather than learning directly from school lectures, I trusted my own interests and learned directly from the works of the great masters of the past. In that sense, I am a completely self-taught painter.
There was only one time, for one year, that I stepped away from the art world. However, I returned. I realized that since I lacked the ability to create anything good even in painting, wasting time doing anything else would just be a waste of my precious life.
Life is a race between the hare and the tortoise. What is important is not a moment of instant power, but the perseverance to continue tenaciously.
I am currently dedicating all my time, other than sleep, to my work, both to take a step closer to the masters I respect and to deliver the best product to you, who will receive my work.
Here, I would like to introduce a startling quote from Mr. Tokuji Sōdai, the founder of a global curry chain, who had a great influence on me.
“Do not look aside; dedicate yourself to management.”
“Nothing goes well from the beginning, so keep doing it without giving up. Business is a daily accumulation, gratitude. Working 5640 hours a year (15.5 hours a day, 365 days a year).”
“During my active years, I had no hobbies and made no friends. I never went to bars. I never did anything that would interfere with my work. I worked up to 5640 hours a year. I thought that if I didn’t lead by example like that, my subordinates wouldn’t work.”
Have you ever realized the fact that all the artificial things in your head are born from someone’s obsession?
When you read these words from Mr. Sōdai, how did you feel? Were you surprised and thought, “Do you go that far?”
The job of a painter is exactly the same as all businesses in the world. Only those who work repetitively and honestly every day, who do not play, do not rest, and who have remained obsessed for many years can produce the best goods, the best products, and the best works of art.
Humans cannot continue perfect concentration forever. That is why the battle is decided by how much time you can dedicate to the activity in a day. I am prepared to continue this life for decades, without taking a single day off, 7 days a week. In fact, even the content of the dreams I see while sleeping is all about painting.
Everything convenient and beautiful made by humans in front of us was created by someone squeezing it out of their head and using their hands and bodies to give it shape. I want to dedicate all of me to you, an important existence in front of me. The job of an artist is a service done by sacrificing one’s own money and labor; it is service to you itself.
Why Do the Islamic Decorations and the Aesthetic Sense of Geniuses Create a Serene Sanctuary in Your Daily Life?
How does the anchor of culture that has survived over thousands of years calm your anxiety like duckweed?
Modern society is like duckweed drifting on a rough sea of information. New trends are born one after another, consumed, and then disappear. Amidst such a dizzying environment, aren’t you exhausted?
I have not even one millimeter of interest in transient trends. What I am fascinated by is “eternal value” that does not fade even after passing through thousands of years. For that purpose, I have made the study of history and religion my life’s work.
When I touch upon history and religious contemplation, I always face an astonishing fact. It is that the psychological structure—the suffering, sadness, or hope for salvation—that humans felt thousands of years ago is completely common with you and me living today.
Things that have lasted a long time have overwhelming persuasiveness just by that fact. Culture and styles that have been loved, protected, and survived without being weeded out for many centuries embody the “ultimate sophistication” polished through numerous trials and errors. Fixing this unchanging aesthetic sense on the screen is nothing but an act of dropping a sure “anchor” for your heart, which lives in an anxious era.
How do the obsessions of Yayoi Kusama, Gaudí, and Kano Sansetsu detach you from daily life?
My expression style is connected to the lineage of the masters of Western art. The mysterious composition and mystery of Leonardo da Vinci, the overwhelming spiritual dynamism residing in the bodies of Michelangelo, and the sublime beauty filled with the harmony of Raphael. These essences breathe in every corner of my work.
At the same time, I hold the highest respect for the dense decorative designs seen in the mosques of Islamic art. I feel that those geometric gatherings that do not allow for any compromise express the truth of the universe.
The creators who influenced my style all possess their own unique “repetition” and “structure.”
- The overwhelming repetition of the polka dot motif by Yayoi Kusama, creating self-extinction and cosmic expansion.
- The passion of Antoni Gaudí, who incorporated the laws of the natural world into architecture to approach the form of God.
- The configuration power of Kano Sansetsu, an Edo-period painter who sealed overwhelming serenity and stylistic beauty within distorted and eccentric compositions.
I overlap these attitudes toward expression, which can be called “obsession,” shown by these predecessors onto my own work. When you stand in front of my paintings, the densely drawn details should completely detach you from the noise of daily life and invite you to a time of serene thought. My work exists as a “sanctuary” for your heart that you can escape to at any time.
I Have a Question for You. When Was the Last Time You Faced Your Inner Self Deeply?
Here, let me tell you about the biggest feature of my work. When you open my work, what jumps into your eyes first are the countless “eye” motifs scattered all over the screen.
Why did I choose the sensory organ of the eye as a motif?
It is because, in the human body, the eye is not just a visual organ, but the “lead role” where the soul of that person resides, and a “window of the spirit” directly connected to the brain. The proverb “the eyes speak as much as the mouth” is a complete truth. Anger, remorse, joy, boredom, and deep, wordless sorrow—all these subtleties of the heart appear clearly in the sharpness of the gaze and the flickering of the pupils.
When you face others, aren’t the eyes the first thing you check and the last thing you keep in your memory? Tears, the purest emotion, also spill from the eyes.
The countless eyes scattered in my work are not to monitor you. This is a “mirror” that blurs the boundary between the “watcher” and the “watched,” and scorches your own inner heart.
When you gaze into the eyes in my paintings, you are simultaneously engaging in a dialogue with your own depth psychology. This is a special time for you to listen to your true heart’s voice, which has been left behind in your busy daily life.
If you have any questions or are even a little curious about my work, my activities, or the secrets of composition, please contact me at the email address below. I am always waiting for your words.
Takamizawa Mimi Contact: corotakamizawa@gmail.com
Postscript: Why Is the Theme “Your Eye, My Eye” Absolutely Necessary for Your Future Life?
Lastly, let me tell you the most important thing.
My main theme is consistently “Your eye, My eye.” This is not just an art concept, but a mechanism of spiritual salvation that is absolutely necessary for you who live in the modern age.
“It takes time for efforts to show effect. Many people get bored, lost, and frustrated before that.”
Henry Ford left such a sharp quote about the weakness of human psychology. When you try to achieve something or overcome the hardships of daily life, the results of your efforts are not immediately visible. That is why many people lose to loneliness, get lost, and fail along the way.
At such times, the “Your eye, My eye” that I paint becomes a powerful support for you.
The eyes depicted in my work never shift their gaze from you, even when you are lonely or about to break down. It is an existence that stares at, understands, and accepts your suffering. It speaks directly to your subconscious through the “eye,” the window of the spirit connected to the brain, that “you are not alone.”
And I will give you that famous quote by Henry Ford, which I mentioned at the beginning, one more time.
“Most people think of success as something you get. But in reality, success is something you give.”
When you receive the service of being “watched and accepted” through my work, a leeway and energy of the heart are born for you to give something to others. From a world of snatching to a world of giving. Your true success and happiness in life begin there.
My art exists to serve you and to liberate you from the suffering of daily life. Please welcome my works, into which I have poured all of myself, as a partner in your life.
