At what age did you decide to become an artist?
I didn’t. My mother said, “You have always drawn for as long as I can remember.” I also loved singing and dancing but couldn’t get any support from my parents to take any lessons. My father was a banker and believed that those professions were very difficult to make a living. (Dad was completely right!) So, I gave up everything I wanted to do. But when I was twenty-five, while traveling in Italy, I saw the Pietà by Michelangelo in Rome. It was the greatest wake-up call, and it inspired me to study something I really love. I saved my money and started to go to Musashino Art University in Tokyo without telling anyone. I didn’t decide to become an artist; I just wanted to study art, something I really love.
How did your parents react when you told them you wanted to be an artist?
I didn’t tell them so. After my graduation, I didn’t know how to live with my art in Tokyo. I didn’t know anyone making a living from their artworks. And it was impossible for me to find the answer. Then I thought, “There is no border in visual art. It speaks to the viewer’s heart without any language, as Michelangelo’s Pietà did to me. Maybe I can find the answer in New York!” I saved my money (again) and moved to New York City in 2001. My parents were totally shocked. My father only said, “Just come back when you run out of your savings.”
Who are your favorite artists?
Michelangelo and Seiji Saito. These two masters changed my life. Michelangelo led me to open the art world door. I met Seiji, master stone sculptor and instructor at the League, in 2002. The first time I saw his figurative marble sculptures at his studio, I was very excited and admired the skills and knowledge behind the beauty of his artworks. I thought, “Wow, he is a real stone sculptor!” Seiji told me that he moved to New York City from Japan in 1961, was an assistant of Isamu Noguchi for a few years in his early career, and became an instructor at the League in 1998.
I was a painter. Even though I loved Michelangelo’s sculptures, I didn’t plan to become a sculptor. By chance, I found many marble blocks in trash containers at a construction site in downtown New York City, and I wanted to donate them to the League. However, Seiji said that the League would not accept my donation because they could not afford the transportation and the storage. Suddenly, he asked me, “Why don’t you try carving marble yourself?”
Without Seiji’s suggestion and mentoring, I would not have become a sculptor. Seiji helped me grow very much as an artist. I didn’t know I became an artist until on Japanese TV I was introduced as “Artist, Minako Yoshino.” I was like, “Really?” It was right after I did “Earth and Humanity,” the art presentation at the United Nations in New York City in 2005.
Who is your favorite artist whose work is unlike your own?
TeamLab, an international art collective. You might say, “Hey Minako, Team Lab is not an artist!” They are an interdisciplinary group of artists using ultra-technologies. Collaborating artists include programmers, engineers, mathematicians, graphic animators, and architects integrating art with science, technology, and nature. Their creations are entirely different from my work, and someday I would love to collaborate with them!
Art book you cannot live without?
One is Michelangelo: Pietà by Robert Hupka. It was a gift from my friend when I started to learn marble carving from Seiji at the League in 2002. It became my sculpture’s standard guideline; it includes all the different angles we would never see with our eyes. I always bring this book for wherever and whatever project I do.
Another one is Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. You might say, “Hey, Minako, that’s not an art book!” It is the manga (also called graphic novel) by Miyazaki, the world-renowned animation director. He spent thirteen years completing this story. It includes an important message for today’s human society. It was translated into eight different languages, and I have Japanese and English versions. It made me who I am today and led me to what I want to do with my art.
What is the quality you most admire in an artist?
Original creativity (truth to yourself), sophisticated skills, and spiritual strength to continue. Even though today’s contemporary art world sometimes doesn’t care about “skills,” I believe that it is the fundamental quality artists must have. Once, an art dealer said, “Minako, your art is too good for the contemporary art market.” But life is too short to spend time on something that feels fake to our soul, right?
Do you keep a sketchbook?
Yes. I draw my ideas, and I do calligraphies and write poems in my sketchbook. Most of all, my artworks start from these calligraphies and poems. I have many kinds of sketchbooks, and my favorite is a Fabriano Quadrato Artist’s Journal in a 6 x 6-inch size. I found this at the art store of the League. I love its nice texture and different colored papers, which work with charcoal and brushwork well, and are the perfect size to fit my laptop bag when I travel. I started to create public art such as monuments and memorials for parks and gardens after being selected for the League program Model to Monument (also called M2M) in 2014. Those projects often required me to travel internationally, and Fabriano and my 13-inch MacBook Air are always with me wherever I go.
What’s your favorite museum in all the world?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Met is like my forever school. I was in Japan while the severe pandemic was happening (maybe still happening) in New York City, and I asked myself, “What do I miss the most in NYC?” Then I thought of going to the MET. When I am there, I feel like I am at home. Visiting a museum and seeing great artworks is as essential to me as creating my artworks.
What’s the best exhibition you have ever attended?
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams in Brooklyn Museum in 2021. It was a fashion exhibition but so much more than that. It showed over two hundred haute couture garments, Dior’s remarkable sketches, photographs, archival videos, perfume elements, accessories, and more. They carefully created dynamic spaces. The structure of the whole exhibition was very impressive. I felt like I was in a movie.
If you were not an artist, what would you be?
Dancer. It was my dream when I was a teenager. I kept asking my parents to send me to New York to study dance, and they kept saying “No.” Now, I knew the solution. I can tell teenager Minako, “You don’t need to ask their permission. Save your money and just do it!” But my old friend laughed at me, “Well, if you were the dancer, you would be retired by now. I am so glad you became an artist. The life of an artist is long!”
Did you have an artistic cohort that influenced your early creative development?
My parents. (Even though they didn’t want me to become an artist!) My father often took me to the museums. He sang and danced very well. When I was nine, we watched West Side Story together. It was my first American movie and made me want to go to NYC so much. My mother was a fashion designer. She showed me how to draw and paint figures, make origami, model clay, and we designed our clothes together. I always wore custom-designed clothes my mother made until I was fifteen.
One very important person, besides my parents and my mentor Seiji, was my classmate Daisuke at Musashino Art University. He pushed me to continue art. When I met him, he was the only person who believed in my art in the entire world. So, if you have one friend who believes in your dream and passion, I think that’s good enough to go. I always tell this to my students to encourage them.
What is one thing you didn’t learn in art school that you wish you had?
How to make a living as an artist. As I said, originally, I came to New York City to find the answer to this question. I don’t know if the League has this kind of workshop or lecture today, but when I was a student, I never heard of any, and I never took any. But Seiji gave me one great hint, and that was good enough to go forward by myself. Do you want to know what it was? Well, it’s a bit long story, so I will tell you one day when I do the lecture at the League!
What work of art have you looked at most and why?
Michelangelo’s Pietà, and one more. Because it reminds me of the day I first saw this piece. I couldn’t believe that a human being could create such absolute beauty. But to tell the truth, there is another piece I look at more than Pietà, almost every minute of my life. It is Symphony of Universe, my eighteen-foot-long mixed media painting. Because it is in my studio and so big, whatever I do, I see it. And I love this situation. It makes me feel that we are part of the infinite, beautiful universe.
What is your secret visual pleasure outside of art?
Cooking. I made a beautiful Carrara marble counter called Earth bar in my studio. Everyone who comes to Earth bar says, “OMG, Minako! Your cooking looks like your artwork!” I have no guarantee about the taste of my food, but I can guarantee my food is visually pleasing, like an Impressionist painting! I love and enjoy cooking for my friends and eating with them.
Do you listen to music in your studio?
Always. Always! Whatever I do, I listen to the music. Starting with classical piano and violin music in the morning, jazz, pop, opera, and dance music while cleaning my studio, and meditation music at night. I listen to many genres, and one of my favorites is Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould. I only gave up listening to the music when I was studying urban design at Harvard University in 2017. Those lectures were very difficult, so I pushed myself to study for twenty-two hours every day. I wanted to use my final paper, “Relationship Between Urban Design and Public Art,” as a foundation for my presentation of the monument project in Japan. It was not easy for me to put music aside, but worth doing!
What is the last gallery you visited?
Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Chelsea, NYC. It is my favorite, and I visited it last week. The first time I went there was ten years ago. It was the opening night for a Japanese master painter Hiroshi Senju, and I met a lovely lady, Scarlett. We were both about to get a glass of wine and started to talk. She introduced me to Senju; He looked at the photo of the marble statue on my card and said, “What a beautiful piece!” I was thrilled about his reaction! Later, Scarlett came to my exhibitions, including the red dot show at the League. I must say that New York City is full of miracles because she became one of the most important supporters and collectors of my paintings and sculptures.
Who is an underrated artist people should be looking at?
Yasuo Kuniyoshi. One day, Seiji told me with a big smile, “Minako! I asked the League to include Kuniyoshi as an Honorary member in our catalog!” It was maybe around 2003. If you are a student of the League, you might know Kuniyoshi well, but I didn’t know him even though I studied art history at an art university in Japan. Kuniyoshi was a student and instructor at the League. In 1906, when he was 17, he came to the United States from Japan and gained prominence in the New York art world during the 1920s. He became one of the most esteemed artists in the United States between the two world wars. But somehow, people forgot him.
In 2015, the Smithsonian American Art Museum organized a major exhibition about Kuniyoshi. Japanese TV wanted to interview Bruce Dorfman, a former Kuniyoshi student and an instructor of the League. I was helping with this shooting, and Bruce and I became very good friends.
A year later, the producer of Kuniyoshi Exhibition in Japan asked me to create one painting after Kuniyoshi’s artwork, Little Girl, Run for Your Life (1946). I used my imagination to understand the meaning of this painting and created my version of Little Girl, Run for Your Life (2016) with the same casein colors Kuniyoshi used. Those two paintings were shown at Kuniyoshi exhibition in Sogo Museum in Yokohama in 2016, which tried to introduce Kuniyoshi’s legacy to the contemporary world. It was the painting’s seventieth anniversary.
What art materials can you not live without?
Charcoal and eraser. When I came to NYC in 2001, all I could bring was a small suitcase I borrowed from my friend. The only art materials I had were a tiny box of bamboo charcoal and one Japanese white eraser. They let me start all the miracles in NYC, so I know that if I have them, I can start again, whatever happens. Additionally, when I needed to do the presentation to New York City to get approval for the M2M monument design in Riverside Park, Greg Wyatt strongly suggested, “Minako, just bring your original sketchbook. Your charcoal drawing is powerful enough. No Photoshop needed.” I couldn’t believe it because everyone else was using images in Photoshop. But Greg was right. All the judges loved my charcoal drawing. Since then, I have used my charcoal drawing for all other presentations of public art projects. It has never failed so far.
Do you paint/sculpt/create art every day?
Yes, I do. I think today’s artists’ work is more diverse. My work is not only painting and sculpting but also designing websites, creating concepts and presentations, writing proposals, essays, and books, communicating with technical/professional people, and so on.
In 2019, I was working with four Italian artisans to carve a twenty-five-ton marble block in Carrara, Italy. Many famous artists who don’t know how to carve marble go there “to order their statues.” Nowadays, everyone has started to use robots, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to work with people. I was an artist as well as an art director there, but initially, it was challenging for me because they treated me “like a baby.” (No~!) However, once I showed my skills (something they could not do), they sincerely respected me, and I built my carver’s dream team. I showed them how to produce the line and surface I wanted to create, and we carved them together. The result of the final monument became a stunning organic form by skilled hands. In such a case, building the dream team was a part of creating my art. I will say the artist as a creator has many kinds of creative tasks.
What is the longest time you went without creating art?
Seven days. In June 2019, I was looking for the perfect block of marble for the next monument in a quarry in Carrara, Italy, and I got an emergency phone call from Wataru, my brother in Tokyo. My father was sick, and Wataru said he could not live more than two weeks. I was just in Japan to take care of him before coming to Italy, and we never expected such an emergency to happen so soon. I purchased the most expensive air ticket and flew back to my hometown of Toyama, Japan. I ran to the hospital, and the doctor said he did everything he could, and there was nothing else more he could do.
We decided to move my father to the VIP room, which was a similar design to our living room at home in Toyama. Big windows, lovely new curtains, clean kitchen, beautiful bathroom, TV, sofa, chairs, etc. I displayed my oil painting, HIKARI (light), my father’s favorite, and put a small Lovers sculpture nearby his bed.
I decided to watch him for twenty-four hours every day. We tried to do all the fun things he used to do for us. We had breakfast together while watching movies, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Roman Holiday. We invited many friends and relatives and had a karaoke party with the best sushi delivery. He sang, danced with his hands, and enjoyed many of his favorite foods. When everyone went home, he said, “I am so sorry, Minako, you needed to come back to Japan for me. You must be busy with your big project in Italy.” I know that he always wanted me to come back to Japan. I said, “Don’t worry, Dad! I can work anywhere on this planet!”
As I didn’t want him to worry about my work, I started making the monument’s final model with clay by his bed. He was relieved I was working next to him and said, “I’m watching over you and your work wherever I am… even from heaven.” From the day I left Carrara to the day I started to model clay in my father’s hospital room was seven days. That was my longest time without creating art.
What do you do when you are feeling uninspired?
Never happened. I always have too many ideas, and I feel my life is not long enough to achieve everything I want to create.
What are the questions that drive your work?
What can art do for people & society? How can we connect the world through art?
Just before the World Trade Center terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, I moved to NYC. The location of my project was downtown on Broadway, very close to the WTC. I couldn’t accept the reality of what was happening in front of my eyes. I felt so useless and cried every day for a week. Since then, I have kept thinking about what art can do for people struck by overwhelming tragedies and how we can use art to connect this divided society. I became an artist because I truly love art. But I am not completely satisfied if I create art just for myself. I create art to share the vision of peace to connect the world.
People may say I am a dreamer, but I believe artists need to be dreamers who can envision the peace that doesn’t exist today, as John & Yoko sang.
What is the most important quality in an artist?
Truth to yourself, and to the world.
What is something you haven’t yet achieved in art?
The Global connection of Lovers monuments. In 2014, I created the first Lovers monument (nine feet high) for Riverside Park in NYC with the League M2M grant. Even though I wanted to carve this in real Carrara marble, the budget was not enough, so I created a cast of bonded marble powder. A few years later, the people from my home prefecture, Toyama, saw this monument and asked me to create a second Lovers monument (12 feet high) in real Carrara marble! The monument committee raised half a million dollars and sent me to Italy in 2019; it was the year I lost my father.
I want to create a global connection through Lovers monuments. I am discussing with one of the wards in Tokyo the potential of installing a Tokyo Lovers monument, and also proposing Hiroshima Lovers to the city of Hiroshima with Misuzu Kanda, a university student at Hiroshima University Department of Integrated Global Studies. I also dream of installing Lovers monuments in Washington, D.C., and Berlin. I want to prove that art can benefit human society.
What is the best thing about art in the era of social media?
The connecting speed between artist and supporters. In 2014, when I created the first Lovers monument with an M2M grant, I wanted to have 1000 love messages surrounding the Lovers statue. I set “1000 Love message station” in the basement of the League, right in front of the stone carving studio, as well as I called people in the world to join this project on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. In the end, I got over 1000 love messages in sixty-three different languages, which excited me very much! I was amazed by the power of social media.
One of the social media’s most significant advantages is its speed in connecting people everywhere; it is not one way but interactive. Therefore, I could see the viewers’ thoughts about my project in real-time. It connected me with so many important diverse people. Some lived on the other side of this planet, but social media connected us momentarily. Just like now, you are reading my interview on your device; next, you check Google or my website and find all the links to my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We will be connected in a few minutes!
The viewer’s reaction to the artist’s work is like water for flowers. Even a single comment, “Minako, I like your art!” gives me the energy to continue my art today. I always think, “My art is a tool to reveal and convey a vision of love and peace,” and social media is expanding it in many ways.
MINAKO YOSHINO (@minako.nyc) lives and works in New York City. To see more of Minako’s projects, visit her website.
