

Unveiling the Stories that Shape My Art
I am thrilled to embark on this literary journey with you, sharing the stories that have profoundly shaped my creative path. These tales...
4 min read
Moeko MACHIDA is an Aichi (Japan)-born artist who creates paintings under the prominent theme: the nature of life. Placing herself amid all phenomena surrounding lives, she carefully observes and perceives phenomena, thus meticulously putting them into images.
Raised by biologist parents, she has been familiar with matters surrounding vitality and has had a strong perception of emotions since an early age. Consequently, she had gotten overwhelmed by the spirits of the dead and the invisible existences surrounding her. It was her expressionist self that found a way to face those presences that she could not detach herself from.
The ideas she nurtured in studying Japanese painting and Butoh dance also have influences on her artistry. While studying at the Kyoto City University of Arts, she learned the Japanese painting method that places emphasis on sketching, through which she acquired an attitude of taking time to face the subject matter with serenity. She also started dancing in her childhood and studied Butoh eagerly during college, which led her to apply the Butoh-derived idea of the body as being amid phenomena surrounding lives to her work.
The pebble-like round aggregates that frequently appear in her paintings mirror how something in life exists and evolves, representing not only the living but also the dead.
Her ultimate goal in creation is to be aware of the ways our senses and perceptions are, and thus share them with others through her work.
She has participated in exhibitions in Japan, Europe, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and has also been commissioned to create sliding screen paintings for traditional Japanese houses as well as to exhibit her work in hotels. In the spring of 2025, she will begin a new creative journey based in Basel, Switzerland.
My painting practice is rooted in a fundamental question: What is the essence of life’s unseen beauty? In my work, motifs drawn from nature—such as mountains, stones, and the moon—do not just exist as external subjects, but emerge from within: from memory, sensation, and embodied experience. These forms serve not merely as representations of the natural world, but take on poetic and symbolic roles, guided by the East Asian aesthetic concept of "Mitate"—a process of associative transformation. For example, clusters of small stones may evoke the tranquil form of life that simultaneously encompasses both life and death, while the moon often reflects the cycles of time and existence.
Through "Mitate," my paintings transcend simple representation, offering instead a space of abstraction that invites the viewer to engage with their own narratives and sensory experiences.
My practice resonates with the East Asian painting philosophy of 気韻生動 (Qi Yun Sheng Dong), which seeks to infuse the artwork with a sense of life’s presence and energy. The layers of textured natural mineral pigments, the rhythms formed through the density and dilution of color, are intimately linked to the micro-movements of my breath, body, and spirit. These elements function as poetic devices, imbuing the image with a quiet spiritual depth. Rather than mere improvisation or emotional outburst, it is an act of carefully examining the latent connections between nature, the body, and emotion.
In this way, painting becomes a process of reconstructing my memories, sensations, and cultural background, while also reimagining the human relationship with the natural world. I seek the way of "narrative abstraction" within contemporary art, as I move between abstraction and figuration, while connecting it with Eastern spiritual sensibilities.
You can read more about the inspiration for Moeko's work at the following her Blog (Traces of Words) Check it out!
私は「生命の輝きの本質とは何か」という根源的な問いを出発点に、絵画を制作しています。私の絵画的実践において、風景や自然のモチーフは、私の外側にあるものとしてではなく、身体の内側から立ち上がる感覚や記憶とともに現れます。山、石、月といった存在は、単なる自然の再現ではなく、東洋的な「見立て」の美意識のもとで詩的・象徴的な役割を担います。たとえば小石のような集合体は、生と死を同時に内包する静謐な生命の姿を、月は命の循環や時間の移ろいを象徴するものとして描かれています。このような「見立て」によって、私の絵画は単なる視覚的再現を超えて、観る人それぞれの感覚と物語を呼び起こす余白をもつ抽象性を備えています。
また私の制作は、東アジアの絵画思想、特に「気韻生動」――すなわち生命の気配を画面上に呼び込むこと――との共鳴の中にあります。岩絵具の重なりやマチエールの質感、絵具の濃淡に現れるリズムは、私自身の呼吸や身体、精神の微細な動きと連動しており、観者の感覚と共振する詩的装置として絵の中に精神的深度をもたらします。それは単なる即興や感情の発露ではなく、自然と身体、感情のあいだに潜在するつながりを丁寧に洞察する行為です。
この実践は、自身の記憶や感覚、文化的背景、さらには人間と自然との関係性を再構築することでもあります。私は、抽象と具象のあわいに揺れ動きながら、現代における「語りのある抽象」のあり方を、東洋的な精神性と結びつけて提示することを探求しています。
『私が石ころを描き続ける理由』については以下に詳しくまとめております。
ぜひご覧くださいませ。