THE ART OF FUTARO MITSUKI
interview / liz rice mccray
This month we welcome Japanese artist Futaro Mitsuki and his stunning traditional Japanese portraits to the cover of BL!SSS Magazine. Mitsuki blends ink, acrylics and pencil utilizing pointillism and mythology to carefully craft hyper-detailed monochrome drawings and colorful paintings. Traditional Japanese portraiture that combine a modern twist of time, merging Japanese culture with western influence. Born in Tokyo in 1970, and in 1998 Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Futaro Mitsuki lives and works near Tokyo in his private studio.
“Futaro Mitsuki expresses the excitement and sensation of when an imaginary human in gorgeous costume encounters items from other cultures and other times,” Gallery Korgue says. “From that, the costume as the forms of portraits, sometimes like a slow motion, and sometimes as a dubious portrait. His expression of the Japanese kimonos he loves the most is overwhelming. The pointillist paintings he carefully creates dot by dot, taking hours of time to gather viewers from different culture in today’s world in front of his work.”
**Note, this interview was originally conducted in English then translated to Japanese, transcribed back into English and then back to Japanese and finally translated into English. If anything was lost in translation, we apologize. Futaro Mitsuki is a mystery; his work is a true testament to his artistry. After some searching (actually, a bunch of searching) we were pleased to be able to track down Futaro Mitsuki and ask him a couple questions. Many thanks to the lovely and talented Futaro Mitsuki for taking the time to answer our questions and to see more art from Futaro Mitsuki go to his website, www.futaromitsuki.com.