Jave Yoshimoto
Syracuse University
Evanescent encounter
Gouache, acrylic ink on paper
26" x 40"
As an undergraduate art student, I learned the rules of the high art world. I learned how to look at art with a critical eye, to defend my work, to drop names of influential artists, and how my work fits into the context of art history. Like most eager and impressionable undergraduate students, I've absorbed those rules like a sponge.
I created art by the rules of the high art world, hoping to receive validation through colleagues, professors, and established artists. Over a period of time, I started to realize that I no longer enjoyed the act of art making, or more specifically, painting. I lost the eagerness I had as a naÏve teenager who doodled in class instead of taking notes. I lost the sincerity I had when I drew cartoons as a child. I also lost the connection I had with the general public. I was making a product and I was selling my soul. I lost touch with not only who I was as an artist, but who I was as a person. Nothing felt true, nothing felt like a reflection of myself.
A couple of years ago, I traveled to Japan to rediscover my roots as a first generation Chinese-Japanese-American. There, I was influenced by the traditions and the pop culture of the country I was born. I returned home, inspired to create work that pays homage to my roots, yet with the subject matter of my current American surroundings. I started painting from my life and my identity. I chose Godzilla as a metaphor for myself, as a way to remember my childhood and to represent the displacement I've felt in the various parts of the country. Godzilla would wander different parts of Japan only to be attacked by his surroundings. At times, I too felt just as unwanted as I have lived in different areas of the United States.
At this juncture in my life I use painting to portray the state of the world and my surroundings from the perspective that I've experienced. For the first time in years, my work feels true to myself, rather than being bound by the rules I tried so hard to absorb and learn. Ironically, thanks to graduate school I've learned to discard most of those rules. Perhaps this is merely a natural step, a normal course of growth. My journey still continues as I learn new lessons of being an artist.