Interview by Jimon

1-Where do you reside and work currently? In Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, a small seaside city on the east coast, one hour south of Tokyo by train.

2-How long have you been making art and what lead you to start? Since 2015. A friend asked me to do illustration work for header image of her website after seeing the New Year’s card I had sent her. After that I entered Shibuya art competition awards and I was nominated two consecutive years. Also I started making collage art. I have always liked painting and creating, even when I was kid.

3-Did you study art or is it inherent? I am self-taught.

4-How would you describe Kyoco? I am curious and I am fast. I like to dive into things that catch my interest, like a special attack squadron of air fighters. I am a survivor who has decided to live my life full and make my way as an artist. I have been through marriage, pregnancy and divorce and am a proud single mother of three boys. So far, experience and challenges have made me stronger and more determined to find my own way through life.

5-Do you remember the first piece of art that captured your imagination? A cultural general store named Bunkaya Zakkaten located in Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture.  Everyone thought the store is strange and so crazy. The guy who was working at the store at the time was also strange and fashionable and I’d never seen anyone like him in my town. So I thought it was fun, crazy but I loved it.

6-You paint as well as create collages, which do you prefer and why? I like both.  Painting is free and I mainly paint to express my feelings from different experiences. Collages are often produced as portraits and it is very nice since it makes the customers happy. Quite often the customers tell me that the image and color expressed in the collage, made them look at themselves in a new way. Portrait collage is a lot of fun when it comes to drawing out the charm and characteristics of a person.

7-What do you dream about? I would like to be known, recognized and appreciated for my art. I would like to have my portrait collage style used by high profiler brands, maybe for a T-shirt design.  I would like to be featured in Vogue magazine. I would like to be on the cover of other art and fashion related magazines.

8-How do you define success? People say that success is more than money and fame. I also think so, but I still have to make that experience myself. Money and fame is part being successful.

9-Best advice you ever received in regards to your career as an artist? The Japanese illustrator and designer Hiro Sugiyama said, “you don’t have to be caught in one style”.  I can relate to that. I have the chance to make work of various genres and techniques.  I like that. I get bored if I work only in one style.

10-How would you like to be seen as an artist years from now? As a Japanese multimedia artist, interpreting, expressing and communicating everyday life as well as bigger things through my art. At the end of the day art is about communication. As an honest artist, a strong woman and a strong voice. And always as a mother of my three children.

11-Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration? I get inspiration from everyday life.  Music, movies, TV and from parenting. Some of my pictures are inspired by the special biological clocks of us women and the emotional stages. Like the premenstrual phase, the prenatal and postnatal phases of pregnancy and also the menopausal phase later in life. I can also be inspired by wanting to change things. Japanese trains often have problems with baby strollers. Many mothers in Japan are afraid to take a train with their children for that reason. I was dissatisfied about this and it inspired me to create a piece that shows that.

12-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table? Ohtake Shinro, Niki De Saint Phalle and Basquiat.

13-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio? My kids, my favorite music and my curiosity.

14-How would someone find you on Social media? instagram@kyocomori

15-Anything else you’d like to mention that I didn’t ask? Japan does not appreciate self-taught artists, as much as formally trained artists. I am not formally trained at art school but I will work hard to find my own way to success and fame, as a Japanese artist. I will prove it is possible by following my dream and live my life powerfully, as a woman, a mother and a self-taught artist. I am grateful for this interview and for giving me the opportunity to be heard among the readers of this magazine in Japan and abroad.