Hatching the Egg of Hope

I've always loved painting. During a spring break in high school, I visited Belgium for two weeks. I spent my time painting on the streets. People who passed by seemed happy with my work, even though I couldn't understand their language. I realized the power of art to bring people together.

In college, I had a dream. I wanted people all over the world to recognize me as a great artist. After graduating, I went to London to become famous.

In London, I lived and worked part-time in a guest house. I didn't have much money. No gallery accepted my paintings.

My street artist friends and I thought it was cool to look angry. They were expressing their anger at social injustice, and their anger was real. But I was from an ordinary family living an ordinary life. I wasn't angry at all.

I was in London for two years, but still I wasn't a famous artist. I decided I had to find a different way of expressing myself.

In London, I happened to watch a TV program about a school for orphans and street children in Nairobi, Kenya. The children looked unhappy. I suddenly felt an urge to go to Kenya and paint something for those children.

It was not easy, but finally in 2006, I got to Kenya, found the school, and was able to paint for the children. I painted an angry dragon. I was happy with it, but a teacher complained, "The children are frightened by the dragon. Some of them refuse to come to school." The children thought that it was a big snake. They did not know that dragons are imaginary.

I asked them, "What would you like me to paint?" "Lions!" "Baobabs!"

I asked the children to help me, and we had a lot of fun painting together. According to the teachers, the children became more active than before.

That was a turning point in my career. Creating happiness through painting in collaboration with others is my thing. I made up my mind to do a painting project every year in different parts of the world.

In 2011, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I joined a volunteer group in Sendai. Because schools were closed, children had nothing to do. They looked bored. I thought my painting project might cheer them up. I started working with these children. We painted the walls of a school.

A barber in Ofunato, Iwate, asked me to make a sign for his shop. I not only made the sign, but I also painted his whole shop in bright colors!

I had doubts about the usefulness of my art project, but I did not want to think that art has no power in the face of disaster. Money and supplies that people donate can be of great help. But working together on a painting and sharing the joy of creation can also help. People can laugh and smile even in the worst conditions.

In 2017, I was in Mariupol, Ukraine. A war was going on. It was a very dangerous place. People were dying every day. I saw shell holes everywhere and buildings destroyed by bombs.

Mariupol was not a safe place for an art project. But, to my surprise, when I started painting, children came out of nowhere to join me.

We painted a big mitten. The idea is based on a famous Ukrainian story, "The Mitten." In this story, on a snowy night, an old man drops a mitten. A mouse, a frog, a rabbit, a fox, a wolf, and many other animals come into the mitten to keep warm.

In our painting, we see people from all over the world sharing the warmth of the big mitten. It is decorated with Easter eggs which represent life and hope. Our painting shows that people's warmth of heart can hatch the egg of hope, and bring a peaceful life to all of us.

I still don't have a clear answer to that question. Who am I as a person and as an artist? But one thing is clear. My art has the power to make people "super happy."