Sho Tsunoda
Being an international individual has helped me to think globally and made me aware of how to make paintings that will potentially communicate with many people of the world regardless of their cultural background. While I embrace our personal uniqueness, I seek collective humanity in all we share.
My painting deals with artificiality, complexity, brightness, and the intensity of contemporary urban life. A basic theme is my struggle in search of raison d’etre in our constantly expanding society. Each individual seems to become an anonymous member of a vast crowd in cities today. Through my work, I portray the struggle to find identity and aim to deliver the message that no matter how vast the society becomes, we are all unique and irreplaceable and although it is difficult, it is possible to find the purpose of life. I am concerned with how the material richness of society can bring mental and spiritual richness in some ways, but how it can also have the opposite effect.
I usually paint with fingers to give my work organic, dynamic and humane feel. It helps me depict the energy of living and sense of urgency to express feelings in this fast-paced society. Through the directness of this painting method, I aim to create lines or forms that are sensitive yet strong and random yet specific to my feeling.
Randomness is important to my work. Randomness allows variety and freedom to co-exist. It makes me search for more complex rules that govern the randomness just like trees in jungle that seem to distribute randomly yet there are very specific reasons why each tree is where it is. I personally believe the purest form of chaos includes parts that have disciplines. If it were random uniformly, it wouldn’t be truly free from rules. Through what seems to be chaotic or random, I aim to display free will I believe in.
As a child I was fascinated with plants, insects and animals. I joined the Osaka Orchid Society as the youngest member when I was twelve. I grew more than 100 orchid plants at some point. I also had many insects and animals as pets. By analyzing the forms of living things, I am realizing that every line of every species has a specific purpose. This awakening to the visual world has led to my interest in painting.
Through my experience, I feel I was saved by art as an angst-driven youth. My attempt is to return the favor by doing the same to the viewers. I put as much sincerity as possible to my work. I would like to make art that speaks to people both at their best and worst situations.
In colors, I am especially interested in the way invisible ultraviolet light becomes visible in the form of fluorescent colors as I believe role of art is making invisible things such as feelings and thoughts visible. Some of my recent paintings have weaving organic forms with geometric spaces and shapes, metaphorically suggesting the technological world vs. the spontaneity of my own human sensitivity.
