"To know who you are, become sensitive to the moments when your heart shines."
People often lose sight of themselves and go through moments of sinking into darkness. But when they rise from that deep darkness and can believe in themselves again, a step toward a new future is born. A painting made for those who feel they are losing themselves and need energy to take a step toward the future.
The Feeling in This Work
A work with the themes of "awakening" and "self-trust." I put into it the prayers that "it is all right not to be all right," "light begins with accepting yourself as you are," and "everyone is loved, and their very existence is a miracle."
Concept & Background
Repeating the process of layering several colors and scraping them away, I gave the surface an expression as if light were seeping out from within. The transparency of green and blue and the warmth of red and orange intersect; seen up close, particle-like colors breathe, and seen from afar, the whole rises up as soft layers of light. These layered colors reflect the process of a person's heart being reborn even as it wavers.
On Making This Work
I put into it the prayer that "everyone is loved, and their very existence is a miracle." It is all right to feel fear, it is all right to shed tears. May it become a chance to embrace yourself just as you are and believe again in your own inner light.
The light painted here symbolizes the journey of a person regaining their true self, supported by self-trust and the love of others. To know who you are, become sensitive to the moments when your heart shines. And never give up looking for them.
The same work cannot be delivered again, but with Personal Order Art, I paint a one-of-a-kind work just for you through a conversation with each person.About using the artwork
More about this painting
The night sky painters looked up at
The universe and the starry sky have drawn painters for centuries.
One of the best known is Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night." Painted in 1889 while he was staying at an asylum in Saint-Rémy in the south of France, it was based on the view from his window before dawn, and is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. The swirling sky, the shining stars and moon — it is loved around the world as a painting not of what the eye sees, but of the sky the heart felt.
"Universe, Paradise of Memories" is not the universe seen through a telescope either. It is the inner universe we feel in the moments when our hearts light up.
What awe does for the heart
Before a sky full of stars or vast nature, we sometimes feel lost for words. Psychologists call this feeling "awe," and it has been studied actively in recent years.
A research team at the University of California, San Francisco asked people aged 60 and over to take a 15-minute walk once a week for eight weeks (published in the journal Emotion, 2020). Half of them were asked to look at their surroundings with fresh eyes, as if seeing them for the first time.
Those who took these "awe walks" felt more joy and warmth toward others during their walks, and their everyday distress decreased. In the selfies they took on each walk, they gradually appeared smaller and the scenery larger — and their smiles grew bigger.
When we feel small
The researchers call this change the "small self." Feeling small in a vast world is not lonely; it can lead us to feel connected to everything around us.
Hanging a painting that evokes the universe may be a way of making, in each day, a little time to look up at the sky.
In the moments your heart lights up
I gave this painting the words: "To know who you are, become sensitive to the moments when your heart shines."
When you look up at the stars, when you meet something beautiful, when someone's words warm your heart — I hope this painting reminds you of those small moments of light.
Sources
MoMA (Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889)
Sturm, V. E., et al. (Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults, Emotion, 2020)
UCSF (Awe Walks Boost Emotional Well-Being, 2020)
¥128,000
tax, frame & domestic shipping included
shipping outside Japan: flat ¥8,000
approx. USD $850
A one-of-a-kind original painting.
