Naoko Shiozaki

NAOKO was born in Kawasaki and still lives in this city. She aspired to be a painter when she was a child, and continues to make it her life's work, but due to her illness, things don't always go as planned, and some of her works are drawn in bed. However, she believes that as long as she has a piece of paper and a pencil, she can survive. Kawasaki, a city famous for its factories, has a complicated background, but for her it is the hometown where her grandfather and father worked, and she feels nostalgia and awe for it. Even familiar landscapes can appear as if they are new to us when we try to draw them on paper. It is for this reason that she herself looks forward most to seeing what she will create in her paintings. Like a lighthouse illuminating the darkness, she hopes to record the changing daily life in an unhurried manner. For her, creation is not about expressing something, nor is it a means to convey a message to others. It is something that comes naturally in the process of living, a crystallization of the formless "heart" on paper.