Art saved me during the most difficult time of my life. And now, with the support of many fans, I am able to make a living as a painter.

Now it is my turn to help those who have lost hope.

I'm thinking of calling it the Takuma Car Project, where I'll be working with the people who have been suffering from the coronavirus pandemic to make painted cars to sell as a charity project.

First of all, I'm going to auction off my paint car from December 25 to January 10. Since the awareness of painted cars is low in Japan, it will also serve as an advertisement. At the same time, we are asking for people who want to paint on the cars or who have lost their jobs.

In the second half of January, myself and some unemployed people will paint small paintings on the cars of those who want to be painted. Our team will gradually improve their skills, and when we get used to it, we will paint a whole car to make a painted car.

Last time, we talked about how "artistry" is hard to understand. That's when I came up with the idea of a "Takuma Medal". If we respond to something easy to understand, wouldn't a medal be easier to understand and respond to? I wanted to do such a social experiment.

The aim of the Takuma medal is to see if the price will rise. Also, is it easy to understand for ordinary people? I wanted to capture the complexity of art, which is why it is so hard to understand.

The Takuma Medal is not a currency. But I'm looking forward to seeing if it will be like Bitcoin.

Money has been in the hands of the state for a long time, but before that, gold and silver were in the hands of the state. However, it wasn't necessarily that way forever, as there was a time before that when it was traded by weight in gold and silver. Bitcoin is widespread, regardless of the country, and there is no state behind it.

The Takuma Medal is a medal issued by Takuma Tanaka. They are given value as money through auctions and second-hand sales and purchases. We think this is interesting. Please stay tuned for this game.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

I've been painting for more than 15 years now, and I've come to feel that art is like air. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

I've come to believe that the people who view art are also taking it for granted, just like me.

But in fact, this is not the case. I realized that there are many people who don't know much about art, but think it's somehow good or interesting.

There is a beautiful work of art painting stained glass in Ueno Station, the center of Tokyo. But no one stops to look at it.

I finally realized that those who have a strong interest in art, who think and feel a lot of things are in the minority in this world.

There is an artist called Banksy. He creates controversy by painting on the walls of towns and shredding sold works at auction houses.

He's not reaching out to core art lovers, but to people of around it, people who don't know about art but are interested in it.

Again, the question remains as to whether people are attracted to and react to the artistry or not.I found "artistry" to be a difficult and elusive subject.

My work is now on Japanese auction site.

The theme is Buddha of Corona era.

This is Takuma Tanaka's Art Samurai Training Series.

When I was staying at a guesthouse in New York and going back and forth between Japan and New York, I met a rather cocky student named M. from Kyoto University. He told me that I was lacking in the logic and basic ideas of art.

Sure, I had learned how to draw, but I didn't have any knowledge of the logic of art or other fields of art. For example, architecture, photography and things that went beyond those, like gardens.

So I enrolled in Yotsuya Art Studium, an experimental art school in Yotsuya that was funded by Kinki University and was established at the time. It was an experimental school, famous for its cutting-edge instructors and experimental approach.

The chief director of the school was Kenjiro Okazaki, and I took his seminar and some classes. When I told Mr. Okazaki that I studied the law in Waseda University and studing for the bar exam, he asked me if I had learned basic law. In this way, we explored the basics, which is one of the characteristics of this school, and there were graduates from overseas art universities and foreign students who studied at japanese Art University.

The first fieldwork was to dismantle Rikugien. We all went to a garden called Rikugien in Tokyo and were given five pieces of paper. The assignment was to take apart Rikugien and show the whole picture. I was puzzled by this. To be continued.

An order-made work is now under progress. This work based on a famous painting of Shigeru Aoki.

Thank you very much for those who took interest in our Special Sale held from 1/11-4/11.

We wish our work satisfy those who got it.

Christmas Sale is now planned to be held in December.

Please Check.

Last time, I wrote about Mr. Kanazawa, who first taught me how to draw art. I learned some basic techniques from Mr. Kanazawa, while also learning on my own. At the time I did not have money to buy art books, so I borrowed a large number of art books from the prefectural library in Kuki to study them. If any of those art books had paints in them, they were probably the ones I borrowed.

To learn art, you need to master the pattern of the painter. This pattern is different for each artist. First of all, you have to copy the pattern in order to master it. We try to reproduce as faithfully as possible. The shape, the color, the touch and the surface of the painting.

After that, as I mastered various patterns, I was able to improve them. And eventually, you will be able to break away from the molds and create your own worldview.

It was around this time that I was looking for a way to create a mold. At the time, I came across a book titled "The Art School for Thieves" by Yutaka Sasaki in the Kuki library, and I saw it. When I read the book, it described the various artists who had recently been influencing the work of the landlord.

Inspired by this, I decided to go to Yokohama Station to learn from Yutaka Sasaki, who was teaching at the station building. He was a graduate of the oil painting department of the University of the Arts and worked as an assistant at the Tokyo University of the Arts, but he left there because it was too formal and conservative and went on to become a professor of art at Meisei University, which had a more liberal school culture. To be continued.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Today I would like to write about how Takuma Tanaka has learned the techniques of art.

My first encounter with painting and art originally began as a form of rehabilitation after I became mentally exhausted. After that, I became interested in art, and I learned how to paint from Mr. Hideaki Kanazawa at Yuzawaya, an art supply store with several locations in the Kanto area.

He was an accomplished artist who had become a member of the Nika-kai at a young age without using any money or connections at all. At that time, he was one of the junior members of the Nika-kai, a title he held at that time, a friend of the society.

I remember the first time I met Mr. Kanazawa, when I showed him a drawing, he said, "You draw like a maestro", which I remember. In the beginning, I learned the basics of drawing, how to draw an abstract painting, and how to create colors.

I went there for over two years.

After six months of studying painting, I decided to participate in the Saitama Prefectural Exhibition, which was to be held in Saitama Prefecture Museum. Mr. Kanazawa told me at the time that it was reckless and impossible because the exhibition is for someone who had studied painting for 10 years .

However, I took up the challenge of creating a painting of size 50, which was a big challenge for me at the time. As a result, it was selected and hung in the Prefectural Museum of Art.

To be continued.

We have begun to collaborate famous cities in Japan with the popular human sushi series, Please check it out:

https://ttakuma.thebase.in/

This is a interview made in September 2020. The interviewer is Mr. Uchida Atsushi, who studied brain science in Keiko University in Tokyo. Takuma and Uchida are the friends from high school

***

Hi Takuma. Today I want you to talk about art.

-Ok…. so do you have something to start with?

Well, how do you think about your works as interior?

-As for interior, I think what is the most important is not to bored people.What attract the audience is little texture on surface. Oil painting is good example.

I see.

-Digital images or printings are too plane. It’s like Udon (Japanese pasta). Taste nice , but not to every day.

So what is important is the misalignment from the norm. Without it, the painting has no attraction.

-Yes, that is what I want to say. Is the all works looks same, it’s not interesting at all. If there is some difference, it will be good. When you see the works of Rembrandt van Rijn, it’s much smaller than what you expected. It’s out of order. It is the difference from amateur.

Is it the same for other classical masters?

-Yes, but especially for Rembrandt . He is great.

-Talking about contemporary art, there are much more plane works, different from master pieces.

That’s interesting. In context of contemporary art, planeness doesn’t matter with there evaluation?

-For example, Wahole ‘s work is plane. But what he did whas not. It had a texture and historical meaning.

I understand. It is true that contemporary art has much importance

We’ve got some report pictures from the Art Fair in Paris.

https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/2634837/focus-art-fair-paris-2020#

I was thinking about going to Paris for this, but desisted for the current pandemic situation.

Some of my catalogs are there instead of me. So I hope they can reach to those who are potential to like my works.

My work is now exhibited in an Art fair in Paris.

Exhibition can be seen virtually too.

Please access here.

https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/2634837/focus-art-fair-paris-2020#

There are 4 works.

I was talking with my friend about the influence of Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki.

I've watched his movies since the early period. It is true that his anime and his studio, Ghibli are well known and 
influential all over the world.

It is good thing. But on the other hand, more influential he became, more control is needed.

If he express the reality or what he really thinks, it awill produce a big controvert.

As the film industry is also a business, the box-office matters a lot. Failure is not allowed.

So, when the scale got bigger, it's impossible to make something controversial even it is still necessary to attract the public.

On the other hand, there is a little entertainment with it.

So it is not really popular as anime.

How ever, the art is only way which is possible to say "the king has donkey ears". 

Some sexual expression and other social problems are allowed to be shown.
Also people have a lot of things they want to claim but can't because they are restricted by their community or company.
It is a real charm of art to express and convert these things.

Talking about the film, Akira Kurosawa also tried to be a painter at first.

Plane art, picture is the most basic part of all kind of art.
It is a reason why the plane art is remained and succeeded.

Now I'm reading a book of David Hockney. 
He says that all of flat, 2D arts are what reality, 3D world translated. Of course there happens the gap and lag. The function and uniqueness of each art is how to fill it in.

The book said the Greek philosopher Plato didn't like the realism artworks.
These realism art had a great influence at that time too, and often used to cheat people.So he thought it is harmful.

Socrates said the similar thing too：
The pictures matter how it is seen, not actually what it is.
A branch in a water looks ｂend, but it is not the truth.
Those who draw knows our weakness and tries to deceive us.

At that time there was a realism painter Zeuxis who used a lot of techniques to paint a kind of trick art and made a big money. What Socrates said considered these situation.

I'd like to share what I thought interesting from this book.

Starting from "Human Sushi" I've treated the COVID-19 as a main theme of this year.
And now, I found that this theme lead us to think about the Death, and the opposite,the Life.
We are in the point to think about our view on the Life and Death.

So from now on, I'll work with the theme about the Life and Death.
It is full of mysteries.

In this point, who gave me the big influence is Takashi Tachibana, Japanese journalist.
I read his books in my teenage time, when I was at a fork of life.

The cerebral death, near‐death experience and the mysteries fo Japanese monk Kukai.
These what I've interested and studied till now will be the great source of next creation, too.

Don't miss it.

This is a question I got often.

The themes of my painting is a bit unique.
The source of inspiration is in every where but the main one is the movement of society.
With the studies I've done till now, put these latest news on the canvas.
In my past works, there was a work about Japanese constitution.

What I am working on is a painting about out-of-body experience.

About the process of painting 

The first few years when I started painting I used to draw a rough. 

I mean I didn’t know what to do with the white, vacant canvas.

Now the way I paint is quite different.

It is like Chen Juanmi, a Chinese master chef cooking.

He doesn’t use measure.

Considering the balance of taste while he cook and improved the best.

This is a technique you can get with experiences.

In the art world it is basic to paint carefully with taking much time.

But is it is useless to paint with long time without paying much attention. 

I once heard that's Andy Warhol asked to Basquiat “How long does it take for you to paint?”. Basquiat answered “Short time”

Warhol loved the answer

Professional needs a quantity and quality. So they need speed for their work.

This is what I am trying to master now.

after going to the museums in Paris one after another, I've been to the Montmartre hills. 

As I haven't enough money, I used metro to move around. Only one exception was when I got lost. I had no idea and caught a taxi. and I was soaked. Yes, it happens a lot.

In the park of the Montmartre,  there were a of street artists painting and selling their woks for tourist. I found a Japanese artist there. He was living there in Paris some how and told me how is it like to be en street artist there. He said it is necessary to be approved by the city. 

At night, I went to a bar. But it was a rip-off bar actually.

 On the next day because of that accident, I'd only have one thousand euros. So I had to spend the rest of the time in French saving even more. I hardly stayed in Paris to see around all the museums their.

After the Paris I was planning to go south France, province.

Before that I've been to Museum Marmottan Monet. The famous museum with the great paintings of Claude Monet. It was about 25 m wide, but it seems to have more width. Also the museum was where I've got to know Berthe Morisot. She is female impressionist painter of that time.

After here finally I've got to the southern France.

As I decided to stay in Paris for a week, I used every time I had to go to museums in Paris. The main destinations were the museum of Louvre, Orsay, and the Notre Dame.

There in the museum of Louvre,  the main purpose was to see the huge amount of works from all over the world, and to see the famous Mona Lisa.

To be honest with you, I wasn't really moved by the Mona Lisa. It was

inside the protective glass and was a cloud in front.

What inspired me was the small works of Vermeer that was exhibited very close to the audience. 

Also the old and  rough paintings of human body on the ceiling was surprising for me.

On the other hand,I felt the museum of Orsay was much more friendly to see around. There were a lot of light color painting that used to continued to the impressionists.

It was surprising that a young student was painting a copy of original works. It made me remember of the first works of Matis that was also a reproduction made in museums.

There was a special room for Gogh full of people as his life attract the people all over the world.

I've been to the gallery street too. There was a original painting of Raul Dufy for 500 hundred thousand dollars. In contemporary art area, the Alberto Giacometti was inspiring. 

Than I've been to the Montmartre hill, be loved place of many artists.

(to be continued)