Signs of Summer — Between Harmony and Sway

The colours I layered in pastel were the colours of the hydrangeas I saw last year. Trying to draw a mandala that would not be outdone by its own ground, my heart swayed between the two…

2026 · Pastel, water-based pen and Swarovski crystals · 15 × 15 cm · $1,400

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Artist’s Notes

I layer colour onto the paper in pastel. That colour is the colour of the hydrangeas I saw last year… I had meant to draw a beautiful pastel mandala. And yet something was not right.

The paper giving out the colour is the ground for the mandala… no — I want this pastel work to take the lead as well. I face that pastel paper and draw a mandala, a mandala that will not be outdone by its ground. Between the two, my heart swayed…

“What do I want to show here?” “Am I aiming for a beautiful mandala?” “Or for the trembling of my heart right now?”

The mandalas I have drawn until now are no longer inside me. I begin again from zero. So it can become anything at all. That once I drew this way and it looked beautiful, looked pretty — none of that matters. I renew myself, always. And what was born is this mandala…

Instagram, 16 May 2026

2 Works

  • Chaos
  • Kaze ya Tokuramu
  • Summer Breeze
  • Seichō — Clear and Serene
  • Hinoe-uma — Transcendence
  • Genesis of Fluctuation
  • The Inner Cosmos
  • Lotus Reverie
  • Midnight Summer
  • Melody of the Solstice
  • Being
  • Sway of the Wind
  • The Flower of Vanity
  • Signs of Summer — Between Harmony and Sway
  • The Transience of Life
  • From Budding to Quickening
  • Source of Fluctuation
  • Tenkū — Le Ciel
  • Re — Reincarnation
  • Kinshū — Autumn Scenery
  • The Sign of Summer
  • Autumn Has Begun
  • Late Summer Night Sky
  • Fluctuation — A Sense of Becoming
  • A Promise with the Soul
  • Oneness — Integration
  • Yomigaeri — Remembering Kumano
  • Communion with the Gods — Iyasaka Kagura
  • AQUA

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