Meet Takashi Harada

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Takashi Harada. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Takashi, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I found it’s just simple, actually, just didn’t quit and believe in yourself anytime, whatever happens to you, just believe and just do it. Always create something even when it is difficult to do it physically. We can always do it in our mind. I know it is sometimes very difficult in some occasion. I would try to create my own space physically and mentally when I found it is difficult.
Just because creating artworks is the only way I can do to live, and creating art is the most fundamental act to do as a human being, I believe, I cannot stop. Once you decide to jump off from it, you’ll never be able to come back.
Also since my extreme goal of creating my artwork is a world peace, I always think about others, not myself. That is how to keep creating. I seriously aim to achieve world peace through my artworks. I am not sure if it is possible also I know this is very naïve to think about, but I still believe it is possible. My focus is to provide people the way to feel calm, serene moments, through my artwork and that feeling, I believe, will make people to set back from their current serious issues they have, to see calmly, to contemplate, and make a good decision, or better solution, and be kind to others and trust each other.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am Japanese and considered myself as a Nihonga (Japanese Style Painting) artist. I earned my MFA in Nihonga from Tokyo University of the Arts early 90’s. I was born and raised in a porcelain making family in a small town called Arita where Japan’s first porcelain was made over 400 years ago. I was supposed to take over the family’s Kiln but I pursued to be a painter instead. Since graduation, I have stayed in Germany, France, Canada, and then the US. I first landed in Hawai’i, then moved to San Diego, and came to New York in 2007.

I am always fascinated by memories; people’s memories. So that is my main theme. I am seeking to establish a sort of a stage for viewers to engage their own pleasant memories through my artworks.

I have always been very interested in how people think back on the events that occur in their lives, and the way that both the clarity and cloudiness of memories plays a role. For some, their clearest memories manifest as pictures, and yet for others, smell, sound, or even taste can play a similar role. The five senses associate themselves to memory differently for each person. I myself am a highly visual person and am fascinated with how people recognize and then remember shapes and forms from their life.

For example, why, when viewed behind highly frosted or even warped glass, can certain people almost instantly recognize someone who is close to them? Why, even without all the subtle details, is there not even an ounce of doubt in the viewer about their ability to identify the form?

When, in the course of their lives, humans accumulate information to remember certain objects, do they only save the necessary elements and hold on to a partial image? Or, when in the process of recalling events or images from the packed recesses of their memory, do they simply sift through the collected material and pull out only the relevant parts? I spend a lot of time ruminating on these sorts of questions.

Also, I believe that all natural things, including human beings, have a sort of common structure, and that each of them exist having the equal value at the level of molecules or atoms. I also believe that when humans immerse ourselves in the natural world, our information as life recorded in our genes becomes one with the natural world, and their common structure connects us to each other as tiny individual atoms in the natural world. I wish to create artworks that can evoke such a feeling.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think I have been, and am always curious about anything. I always have questions on anything and look/examine carefully about it, why, how it happened, etc,,,, and it that is a problem, I think how to solve it. So, the first one can be to have curiosity for me.

Then I think another one is, to trust the first instinct, I usually have multiple thoughts about something, and come back to my first one was the best, after all.

So, the third one is actually, however, to question about it(the first instinct) at the same time, think twice about anything from another point of view, if it seems right to you, believe it and just do it.

I’m not so sure I can have any advice, I just always try. If it fails, I just try again.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

Time,,, I need time. I know I can manage to spare some by doing more simple way of doing anything, but somehow, something comes up and end up loosing time,,,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.takashiharada.com
• Instagram: @studiotakashiharada
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/takashi.harada.376258?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Image Credits

Takashi Harada