Cherry Pie I

Cherry Pie I was created during a period when I was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward.

At that time, my girlfriend asked me what I would like her to make for me after I was discharged. I told her that I wanted to try the cherry pie that had looked so delicious in Twin Peaks, which I had watched a few years earlier. This drawing was made while imagining being able to eat it after leaving the hospital.

Although the motif in the image is small, it is placed as a figure that supports a sense of moving toward life outside the closed environment, as well as an anticipation of pleasures that had not yet been realized. Rather than presenting it as a grand symbol, the work offers the image as a modest way of holding onto a quiet, everyday hope.

This work was created in a simple drawing notebook (“rakugaki-chō”) using crayon and watercolor pencils. After drawing with watercolor pencils, I traced over the surface with a wet brush to allow the colors to bleed. As a result, creases and marks formed on the paper during the making process. These traces are included as part of the work, recording the physical conditions and time in which it was created.