Shirai Hidemi | Born in 1990.07.26, Kagawa Prefecture JP

I have loved drawing ever since I could remember, and I was a child who would draw whenever I had time.
He was especially passionate about copying the manga he had read as a child, and was always copying during breaks in elementary school and junior high school, and even after returning home.

Drawing like this was a habit in my life, so I went to a high school that had an art department where I could study art.
There, I was able to study all kinds of techniques, including drawing, oil painting, watercolor painting, acrylic painting, sculpture, and design.
Most of the classes were about art, and I was absorbed in drawing here as well.
Around this time, I gradually became drawn to abstract expressions.

After graduating from high school, he aimed to enter Tokyo University of the Arts, but failed the entrance exam.
While studying at an art prep school for a year, he deepened his studies in oil painting and drawing.

However, after thinking about it for a year, I became interested in working as an illustrator rather than going to an art university and deepening my art studies.
Therefore, she entered a vocational school for illustration. He learns the technique of digital illustration.
From then on, from the age of 21 to 32, he worked as a commercial illustrator, drawing covers for novels and illustrations for card games.

While living a busy life as an illustrator, one day when he was 28 years old, he reached a mental limit.
It became painful to draw and look at illustrations, which I had loved until then, and I was no longer able to work.

This was the result of his increasing sales, popularity, recognition from others, and competitive spirit with other illustrators.


At that time, I started to think about how I wanted to return to the feeling I had when drawing was fun again, and started making abstract paintings using acrylic paints.


I first created abstract paintings as a tool to vent my sick heart.
During this process, negative emotions such as pain, sadness, and anger that had been suppressed came flooding out.
Even so, the canvas accepts it without saying anything.
I was relieved by this, and my heart seemed to be healed with each painting.

Once that stage was completed, I began to express the beauty of the energy flowing in nature.
He visited beautiful places throughout Japan and drew the natural energy flowing there.
Atami, Okinawa, Hayama, Yakushima.
Every time the raw energy of nature flows through me and onto the canvas, my old energy is washed away.
It was like I was being remade into a new me.

However, now that I think about it, the expression ``returning to the original energy of the soul itself'' is more appropriate than ``recreating anew.''
Painting once made me sick as a result of being engulfed by a ``competitive society,'' but through painting I returned to my ``soul's true form.''

Through that experience, I learned that drawing can be a tool for fighting or a tool for freeing one's heart, depending on the person's heart.
From now on, he wants to paint as a tool to free his mind and express the brilliance of his soul.

So he began painting a series of paintings featuring the faces of the people he will be exhibiting this time.

She allowed herself to incorporate the female faces she liked to draw when she was an illustrator into abstract expressions.
I was at war with others, the world, and myself.
Now, instead of fighting with me, I have integrated them by drawing them into my paintings.
So I began an attempt to create peace within myself.

Even now, I am still trying to paint while creating peace within myself.
Although this is something that happened to me personally, I am confident that it will spread to the world through painting.

Instead of fighting, let peace be in each person's heart.
I believe that people can truly love their partners, parents, and friends by connecting deeply with themselves and loving themselves deeply.

My wish now is to love myself, draw pictures, and connect with people around the world through those pictures.
I want to use painting as a tool to connect with and love people.
When I look at the picture I drew myself as a tool for love, something related to "love" is sure to happen in the hearts of those who view it.

The four pieces on display this time are filled with such wishes.