Japan Fans artist Lisa is a member of our Japanese study group. Next week, she will exhibit some of her Japanese inspired art in Utrecht.
Did you also enjoy “The Spirit of Kanji” and the exhibition at the Neude Library so much? Then you are definitely also going to be very happy with the work of Japan Fans artist Lisa van Maaren! Lisa is a member of the Study Group and next week she will exhibit a selection of her Japan-inspired work at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. The Japan Fans spoke to Lisa about her background, work, sources of inspiration and dreams for the future. Read with us?
“My name is Lisa van Maaren, I am 24 years old and I am a 2nd year CMD (Communication Multimedia Design) student at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. For the school subject Studio Seminar, I chose Japanese writing as a subject to experiment with creatively.”
“Through different creative ways, I am working on shaping the Japanese script in a different, creative way. I chose Japanese writing as a subject because I am currently busy learning the Japanese language, starting with Hiragana, and because I see tranquillity in Japan, as a country, that I do not experience here in the Netherlands. Also, it is also my dream to go on holiday to Japan one day.”
“By ‘different creative ways’, I mean using different materials in a work. For instance, for my 4 mini canvas series featuring the 4 seasons, I used different materials. I used acrylic paint, Posca paint pens, texture paint, modelling paint (citadelpaints) and small model flowers. Combining different materials creates an interesting effect. Sometimes this effect works out well, sometimes not, but eventually you learn which materials work well together and which don’t.”
“I also get the inspiration for characters from the book ‘Let’s learn Japanese: First words for Everyone’ by Aurora Cacciapuoti. I look at words/characters that appeal to me and then I think of what kind of creative work I can make with them or from them. Even after completing Studio Seminar, I hope to continue with this kind of experimentation, as I want to see what creative techniques and materials I want to continue using.”
“I like working in analogue, it gives me the opportunity to combine different materials. But I have also recently created things digitally and printed them out with a Riso printer at school. I am still planning to incorporate characters on the Riso prints. I have yet to print out some works, but in total I will have 10 sheets per work, 50 sheets in total. I won’t use all 50 for the same purpose, but it makes me feel good that I can make a mistake now and then not ruin an original work right away. With 50 sheets, my perfectionism will not be able to throw a spanner in the works. Who knows, I might even turn some sheets into bookmarks!”
“The first exhibition where I will show my work is on 4 and 5 April, at the Hogeschool Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 15, second floor around room 2.070. The public is welcome from 15:30 to 18:00. After that, of course, I hope to exhibit many more times through Japan Fans!”
You can find more of Lisa’s work via her online portfolio at https://lisdesign.myportfolio.com/