Today we’d like to introduce you to Kumiko Murakami.
Kumiko, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Today, I create not only art works but also design products. Meanwhile I work as a fabricator for artists, designers, performers, and organizations. I also use my fabrication skills for my profession at a college as an instructional specialist to train students how to use a variety of equipment from power machines like table saw, planer, and bandsaw to digital fabrication machines such as laser cutter, 3D printer, and CNC.
I grew up in Osaka, Japan. Since I was a child, I have always been curious about colors, patterns, and shapes. Origami was a perfect toy for me to play when I was a little. When I was 16, I wanted to be a fashion designer because clothing by Issey Miyake and Jean-Paul Gaultier and fashion Illustration by Antonio Lopez whose choice of fabrics, patterns, lines, and shapes were very vivid but elegant strongly fascinated me. As a result, I went to a fashion school then became a full-time fashion designer at Christian Aujard Homme in Tokyo.
Then later my curiosity was developed towards Fine Arts. I eventually moved to Chicago to study art at the graduate school of the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Since then, Chicago has been the place I create my art and design.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Although I focused on fashion before I came to Chicago, my all-time obsessions since I was a little (even today) have been Japanese manga, novels, animation, action figures, and character goods as well as artificial flowers especially with smiley faces. These are always in my everyday life.
After I moved to Chicago, first I concentrated on paintings, drawings and sculpture. At that time, I was inspired by everyday life of people in Chicago who experience a very long winter and long for spring. People often create their own “spring” as they seem to be extremely obsessive about spring. For example, flowers. Flowers in full bloom are suddenly planted everywhere. The scenes are artificial, awkward, and unexpected but absolutely natural, lovely remarkable. I was very inspired by the phenomenon, and my project called “Making Spring” was set up.
Then, around 2010, I started thinking how to merge people’s obsessions into my obsessions in everyday life to make art, and how to make objects for view at the same time for use in daily living. Now, I call my art and design, functional art.
What do you think about conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
I need more time to search for the answers. Only one question I can think of is about the “life”. In certain perspective, life as an artist (but not every artist) might become easier today because there are many options to create and advertise own art. For instance, by using computers or digital machines, we can shorten time to produce art and make more accurate and detail shapes and lines (although if shapes are too prefect, it might be luck of uniqueness). Or by using social media or websites, artists can show and sell works without galleries/stores and advertise exhibition info. In a way, some processes become convenient. I think today there are more possibilities and opportunities to make artist life easier even though it might be a tiny step.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
People can see my works and exhibition info via Instagram.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kumiko_murakami_
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kumiko_murakami_
Image Credit:
kumiko murakami
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