The Day I Was Told 'You're Like That Person'

'This work is like that person's, isn't it?'
That feeling when you're told that, where you can only offer a bitter smile. Even though I know they mean no harm, my heart feels heavy and sinks. It feels as if the outlines of my own self have been gently shaved away.

That is surely because the influence of someone else has already become a part of me. Perhaps I will never be able to completely escape that influence in my entire life.

But being influenced is also proof that I have truly loved someone or their work from the bottom of my heart. Because I have wished, 'I want to create like this,' I end up resembling them. That is a lovely thing.

In the first place, no matter what I draw, it is only natural that someone else has already done it. Humanity has been moving forward for so long, and if you look back, history has piled up.
However, even if we look at the exact same scenery and use the same materials, the way our hands move and the rhythm of our breathing are different. That is precisely why there are works that can only be born from us.

Aside from my main job, I do collage. Collage is a technique that has been done to death.
But as I combined the drawings I made myself, fragments of magazines, pottery parts, and old tools, a rhythm that felt like my own began to mix in little by little.

My goal was never to avoid overlapping with others. I just wanted to create.

If I can remember that, I think that is enough.
Today, too, that is reason enough to keep my hands moving.