Fumiko Toda
New York, New York
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Favorite Cartoon Character: Chibi Maruko-chan
Collect Anything: Bugs and papers
Dream Dinner Date: Giant Gorilla
Drink of Choice: Red wine
Best Museum: MoMA
Stolen Artwork of Choice: Wolton Ford's animal paintings
Star Wars Character of Choice: Yoda
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I have been painting insects since I was a girl in rural Japan. Bugs, snakes, flies, butterflies and countless other tiny fauna are both my subject and medium. I celebrate their existence in vibrant paintings and prints, and also use them as a tool to express a sense of loneliness and isolation that I carry from childhood.
I had no sense of who I was growing up in Japan - the society is so uniform and I was pushed to behave a certain way and never felt like I knew myself. I regularly escaped to a nearby pond, where I would entertain myself for hours, observing and picking up bugs and other wildlife. I enjoyed being in this new situation; it gave me a sense of myself and an understanding that the world was larger than just me.
In 2001, a year after graduating from Kyoto University of Art and Design, I moved to New York, where I continue to live and work. I create mostly prints and paintings and do not use sketches or reference materials. I instead etch directly onto zinc plates with techniques, such as chine colle and a la poupee. My paintings and prints belie my obsessive focus on intricate detail, repetition of forms and patterns, all rendered with vibrant colors that appear as if they were ground from pure minerals. Some of my artistic influences include Odilon Redon and Gustav Klimt.
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