Life in Tokyo has been nothing but refreshing. From the daily peace of working from home, basking in the sun, to wondering around the city looking for inspiration.

　One of the many things that caught my eye is the difference in colours being used daily in the city. From the glaz of bridges to the crushed raspberry of trucks to the pink and green of subway platforms. The hues being used are so different from what we use in Europe. It makes it visually very exciting and stimulating. Everything around me looks like a painting waiting to happen.

　The fact that the langage is pretty alien to me makes the immersion all the more strange and oddly comforting. There is an overall quietness that contrasts greatly with the visual stimulation. It is, for me, a constant duel between calm and excitement. Which applies perfectly to my duel between drawing and painting. Where one is a dynamic rebound from situations encountered daily, the second one is a more meditative reflection on my surroundings.

　I have always been drawn to fiction and imagination and Japan has a lot in store for that. My outings to Nakano Broadway and Akihabara have been filling my mind and eyes with tons of inspiration. I’ve been collecting toys, stickers, books and whatnot, and this imagery that had fueled my drawings for years is now starting to take my work to new places.

　I’ve been painting daily and the giant drawn billboards and manga character cutouts are part of the everyday landscape here, so it’s normal that it’s now invaded my practice. The result is an odd blending of fiction and reality where the viewer cant make out what is real and what isn’t in the picture. After years of translating nature into drawing, I’m now painting visual translations that are part of a graphic ecosystem. It’s endearing. “