The document is an artist statement by Kazutaka Hirota describing his artistic approach and goals. Hirota was inspired to focus on painting after being asked why he didn't paint a propeller in art school in Japan. He strives through his paintings to achieve a balance or "homeostasis" in human existence by connecting viewers to nature in order to counteract excessive rationality. Hirota believes formative, non-verbal art can provide a sense of nature without relying on language. His goal is for his paintings to act as a cultural bridge between Western and Asian art by applying Japanese Buddhist ideas to Western painting methods. He also aims to work as an art educator to show how Eastern and Western approaches can be combined.

1. Kazutaka Hirota/Hwaeung Hwang
1022 Verdemar Dr Alameda, CA 94502
rivmicm@hotmail.com
Links as My Portfolio:
http://rivmicm.wix.com/hirotakazutaka
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Homeostasis
While studying at an art school in Japan based on the American education system, I learned the
significance of Orphism, American Abstract Expressionism, and, especially, Richard Diebenkorn's Berkeley
years. However, many instructors there had developed artistically in the 1980s and regarded painting as an out-
of-date expression. One of them asked me when I was a freshman, “You told me you don't know how to
PAINT a propeller, but why don't you PUT AN ACTUAL PROPELLER on canvas?” This motivated me to
focus on painting as my speciality because formative art is one of the primary activities of humans and many
people, even in the art field, overlook this fact. The frailty of Japanese art today is due to its never having
interpreted Western art through the viewpoint of Asian ideas. Applying Japanese Buddhist ideas to Western
painting methods, I attempt to create a new aesthetic merging the strengths of East and West.
My art strives to achieve a homeostasis of human existence. Right now, humanity is disconnected
from nature and filled with too much rationality derived from contemporary society. We are out of balance. My
artistic mission is to connect my audience with a sense of nature, from which rationality isolates him or her.
The reason why I am working for this formative expression is that formative art, or non-verbal expression,
does not have to rely on verbal or linguistic activity, which is dominated by rationality and necessarily isolates
human beings from nature. The Taoistic term “Mui Shizen,” which decisively influences Japanese Buddhism,
captures the goal of my painting. “Mui” can be translated into “without willful purpose.” In Japanese, “shizen”
is basically translated to “nature,” but in a Taoist context, the term “shizen” also explains the meaning of nature
itself. In Asian cultures, nature means not only natural materials but also the presence that becomes itself by
itself. While I am painting, I recognize the autonomy or spontaneousness of the painting as it appears. Once
the autonomy/spontaneousness of the painting emerges, the painting in process starts to become the painting
by itself. I simply add shapes and colors to the emerging form, following its autonomy/spontaneousness – art
is not artificial but living: nature. A cloud is made of vapor and temperature; wind is created by the differences
of atmospheric pressures. My painting is a natural phenomenon of shapes and colors on canvas because it is
created by its autonomy/spontaneousness through my Imagination. In this way, my formative painting strives
to provide the audience with a sense of nature in order to neutralize the excessive rationality that unbalances

2. people's daily lives.
My goal for the future is to continue to pursue the meaning and efficacy of formative art as the
greatest common measure between Western art and Asian culture. My painting will be like a cultural bridge
between the two hemispheres. Beyond that, it will be art work which everyone around the world can appreciate
beyond her or his cultural background. Also, my professional goal is to work as an art educator in the U.S. to
show American students how Asian values can be applied to Western art and to let Asian students know how
Western art represents the system of Western thought.