When I decided to pursue a career as an artist, I was living in Ireland and it was part of my journey. My life had changed tremendously after I left Japan, where I used to work as an office worker. I turned into an inquisitive travel-lover and had a very bohemian lifestyle involving constant relocations to different parts of the world.
Although I had a basic art education in Japan and received more while travelling, I always had the challenge of securing a place to produce paintings or even just a place where I could feel at home and relax. Wherever I went, new friends I made in each place helped me enormously to get through the difficult times.
I often moved from place to place, city to city, country to country, whenever I felt the impulse to do so. As soon as I felt settled down, it was time to leave for another place. Sometimes, it also happened unexpectedly and without my control. So the first thing I did every time I moved was to work on my paintings. I had to paint while there was still the chance.
In New York City
Here are just a few of the challenges I had to overcome in order to release my creativity. In New York City, I used to live in a shared studio space, where I painted at night when everyone was gone. Sometimes, I painted on the roof of that 15-storey industrial building in Manhattan. I also painted in the large empty field at the well-known American artist’s residence where I was renting a living space.
In Toronto
In Toronto, I rented places from friends that were under renovation. Once, to pay for my accommodation in an unfinished condo, I helped the owner with the renovations in the evenings and painted there during the day. For the first few years in Toronto, I did most of my artwork in these sorts of circumstances.
Like anyone trying to survive on limited means, I had very few options for the location and the building in which I would live and paint. That also created a lot of challenges and frustration for me as my living situation was not always comfortable and that made producing artwork even more difficult.
The Business Side of Being an Artist
Another challenge was that I had relatively limited time and opportunities for promoting my work and learning about the business side of being an artist. I was always busier with travelling, settling down in new cities, getting to know the neighbourhoods and people, learning about new cultures and languages and just the basic necessities for survival. Of course, I found these learning experiences very exciting and that created even more distractions that delayed me from getting down to doing work and then promoting it.
However, as I pursued my art career path further, I realized that, for me, creating a piece of artwork is not just about simply loving and enjoying creating and painting beautiful paintings. It is closely connected to my own personal life and my own perception of the world. It was around that time that it became apparent to me that, of my outlets for self-expression, painting was definitely the best. It grew to become an exclusive personal activity for me and I felt I could no longer thoroughly express myself in any other way. And I feel that, if I hadn’t had all those experiences and challenges, I would have never reached that point.
While I feel like I have bypassed my career as an artist and even my life itself by spending too much time travelling, I am content that I have had a lot of invaluable experiences from travelling and living in different cities. And as I wrote earlier, it immensely influenced both me and my work to a level that I had never expected.
I believe any challenges we face in life are meant to be opportunities to expand our limitations and benefit ourselves for future scenarios. And they are usually manageable if we know what we are doing and work hard on them.