Today’s story-teller is ukulele player and comic chat artist Shinji Maki, 76 years old.
Maki likes painting. Especially he likes painting Mt. Fuji.
He was past sixty when he started learning acrylic painting. He fell in love with the colorful paints.
He has done about 300 paintings of Mt. Fuji, his favorite. One of his works is a Mt. Fuji reflecting the pink moon light in a dark night.
His style is not to copy from life but to express his affection. He has put on solo exhibitions several times in the past.
The main topic of the story begins from here.
He always does painting in the afternoon because the paintings get darker if he does painting at night time.
And he is introducing the memorable words that the late Taizan Tsuchida, a calligrapher, told him: “You draw with your heart, not just with the brush.”
Expressing how he felt when he heard those words, Maki says, “His words touched my heart. Painting and performances are the same. You will never be able to send your message to people without having mindfulness. The only thing that a performer like me can do to the audience is to do his best on the stage. I would like to keep performing as long as I can move about.”
The NIKKEI 03/19/2010 by Shinji Maki (ukulele player and comic chat artist)
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