Partridgeberry, juniper berry, redstone, soil, charcoal, whale bone ash — sixty natural pigments from Bonavista, canvas


This work was created with around sixty types of pigments,
gathered in Bonavista.

They were derived from plants, soil, charcoal,and even whale bones ash,
All of the colors are natural—

collected over the course of about one
years.

The theme of this work is the spirits of Bonavista.

Here, “spirit” refers to the soul of all living things.

In Japan, there is an ancient belief
that every being possesses a soul.


Beings known as yokai—spiritual entities—are given form.

These yokai can bring both fortune and misfortune to humans.

I see this duality as the essence of nature itself.

We live within nature,
where abundance and harshness coexist.
It is from the interplay of light and shadow
that yokai emerge.

In this painting,I depicted two guardians
alongside the many creatures I encountered in my fieldwork—

whales, foxes, puffins, cod, and moose.

The guardians appear as a pair:
one embodying “the beginning,”
the other “the end.”

Together they convey a message from the spirits:everything already exists here...

and nothing needs to be possessed or claimed.