TAKESHI MARUYAMA, JAPAN

For much of my life a Fear of Death has haunted me.

From a young age and continuing into adulthood, I have dealt with serious illness. My artwork became my Salvation. My Freedom.

One might say I came to art late in life.

Literature, music, painting, sculpture, and poetry always interested me. But a special feeling came over me one day when I was looking at pottery in a department store: Pottery would be a good occupation for me. So at the age of 29, I began working at a major ceramic workshop in Hagi City, an important Japanese pottery center. My intuition was very quickly confirmed.

However, I really ‘woke up’ to art during my 12-year artist residency at Foundation University in Dumaguete City, Philippines (2010-2022). For the first time in my life, I felt free from everything. Free to create.

The work on display here was made during that period.

A spiritual impulse influences my sculpture. In some way, I attempt to make the invisible visible. You will see visual references to Buddhism and Christianity. But my own spirituality is rooted in a very open and prayerful Japanese reverence for nature.

Today I possess a treasured peace of mind. I am glad to be alive. And that is enough.