Tashikayui 

Tashika Yui is a Japanese artist who self-taught herself art and started painting when she was nineteen.

In her art, she creates the special world that people slowly lose over the years as they become adults, bringing “nostalgic love” back to life. In the world that she designs, there are beautiful and reminiscent nature and life, as well as people talking with animals as if they have come out of a children’s book.

 

Her passion for creating such a fantasy world is deeply rooted in her upbringing. Born in 1988, from a young age she was consistently situated in change due to her father’s work, moving from town to town in Japan. Amidst moving so much, what never changed was the beautiful nature and animals she was surrounded by when moving to rural areas. She was so mesmerized by the magnitude and beauty of nature and felt such a great love for them that she started to imagine a world where she co-existed with them intimately. However, she had no one to share these wonders to so they remained a special utopia just for herself.

 

In 2007, she started studying at the University of Hokkaido, Faculty of Agriculture, due to her love for plants and animals. Hokkaido is a unique place where abundant nature that she has profound love for and city-life co-exist in proximity. Loving and living with plants and animals – seeing a city so close to this ideal that she has had since childhood”, she felt a need and longing to show and express this to people. This could have been through music or photography but she chose to do this through art because she was influenced by her mother who liked Marc Chagall very much.

 

The world she paints seems to be like a fantasy animation for children at first glance. However, the expressions of those who are depicted in her art seem to be happy and sad at the same time. These characters are there to remind people of something they have forgotten as adults. She always writes a short story description to help in the discovery of what is expressed in her special ideal world. When people see her art, each person will interpret it differently and they see many different stories and worlds with the help of her description. The enlarged world that each person creates in their mind from experiencing her ideal world art is what fills the gap of all lost values. Her art is completed in the hearts of those looking at it.