Live Forever by Ryoga Katsuma, The Action Painter
His artist’s statement is the most un-artist-statementy statement I’ve read yet:
“My way of painting is that first, I feel free to paint like a child, and then, I choose a favorite color and theme. The rebuilding of these ideas on canvas comes from infinite ideas that only innocent children can have. To have child’s spirit is a special skill, and also the painting technique that only some of the experienced adults can have is the source of my art works.”
The first Ryoga drawing I ever saw was this huge, messy face of a girl he was obsessing over. I think it was done with colored pencils on a giant sheet of paper covered with old drawings he’d started and stopped, now buried underneath the layers of angry, frustrated marks. It captured lust sickness so perfectly - better than anything I’ve ever read or seen on that condition.
Just looking at it makes you remember how oxytocin drives people crazy.