PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Update February 2025: Once again I’ve procrastinated on fixing this page up! But here’s the latest:

2025 Artists of Mosman 2088
My artwork “Bushfire Sunset” was accepted and will be on exhibition at Mosman Art Gallery from Saturday 15 February 2025 – Sunday 16 March 2025

It’s my first time working in this style on wood panel and I’m really happy with how it came together. Until now I’ve been working on two series, “Disconnect” and “Reconnect” which are all works on paper. I’ve mostly moved away from realism and begun focusing much more on abstraction. For one thing, I realised the process of realistic painting causes me a great deal of stress and I just wasn’t enjoying it. I spent far too much energy worrying about every imperfection and it was putting me off making art. Another issue I’ve had was my horror for cleaning paint brushes. So I’ve come up with an abstract process that solves both! I begin by blobbing paint directly onto my surface and spreading it with disposable paper towel. Once dry, I then come in with a pen or paint marker and begin tracing over lines I find in the underlying texture. I find it very meditative, and with no expectations for the outcome, it’s much more relaxing!

Overall, this style of working reflects the state of my mind to a large degree – there’s chaos here, and yet I still set about trying to impose order on it, resulting in outcomes that are often unpredictable. With “Bushfire Sunset” however, there’s also an interesting effect related to my eyesight. At face value, the composition and shapes resemble a fire burning on a hillside, with the landscape, flames, and sky reflected in the water below. However when I take my glasses off and view it with my uncorrected short-sightedness, it becomes very Monet, the flames disappear, and I end up seeing a sunset instead. This is why I called it “Bushfire Sunset” and the transformation that occurs with different levels of eyesight makes for an interesting metaphor about how we might view the world.

Eventually I’ll update this page to show my “Disconnect” and “Reconnect” collections as well.

In the meantime however, I do still occasionally do more realistic art! Here’s “Triton’s First Christmas”, mixed media, which won the 2024 Cremorne Veterinary Hospital Christmas Portrait Competition:

In hindsight I probably overdid things, but Triton was THRILLED with his tasty prize!

Update October 2024: I REALLY AM GOING TO UPDATE MY WEBSITE I SWEAR HAHAHA. I think I need to redesign my whole art section though, move stuff out of the shop, figure out how to organise it all. Doesn’t help that I still haven’t given names to a lot of my newer works. I also have a puppy keeping me very busy…! But this year has been good for me at least psychologically reconnecting with art, so I really will eventually hopefully soon put in the effort…………!!

Update February 2024: Totally forgot to update this page again, last year turned out to be very difficult, but I’m finally back into my art practise and actually feeling good about it! Mostly I’m working on abstract works, but I recently also did some volunteer portraits for the RSPCA’s Poorly Drawn Pets fundraiser. Here’s a look at them, followed by my older works below

Update February 2023: I’ve now got my own private studio! Making some changes to my creative processes this year. At some point I plan to rejig this page, but in the meantime here’s some of my past arty shenanigans!

In 2022 I joined Underground ARTspace where I finally had my own studio space to work in, instead of trying to negotiate with the clutter at home. It had a huge impact on my ability to be creative and I shared that journey with my cult over on Patreon. My year at Underground ARTspace really did help me get back into art again, as it makes a big difference to have a dedicated space, and paying rent also motivated me to keep up a weekly art routine. You can see some of my new and old artwork in my shop – this art was displayed at the Underground ARTspace Creative Open weekend 2022!

For some older art, please check out my blog post:
https://www.destroyermariko.com/2018/02/09/art-i-made-last-year/

In 2016, I began the Master of Art course at UNSW. I’ve always had an interest in creative endeavours, but after the death of my grandparents in 2015, I found myself thrown back into my worst episode of depression to date. Until this point in my life, I hadn’t considered art to be a real option for me to pursue. It was only through experiencing intense suicidal ideations that I began to realise that I had nothing to lose by following my interests into this field. I don’t know what the future will bring or whether I could some day make a living from my art, but during that crisis, art helped me live. While completing the course, I was able to explore the issues of my mental health, particularly in the artwork above. It examines death and mourning in human cultures, taking into account my half-Japanese Australian background, as well as my immersion in the age of social media. If you would like to read more about this artwork, I’ve shared the full description on the video’s YouTube page.

Below are some more examples of art I’ve produced in the past. For the most part, I used to work on developing my painting skills, and at the time found the process to be calming and meditative when I felt down. However, I’ve since changed the way I work with paint as I began to be frustrated by my tendency towards perfectionism, and this is reflected in the more chaotic painting technique combined with text based elements that I now pursue. I also like to branch out, and have occasionally incorporated sculptural, electronic, and interactive elements in my work as well. Click on the images below to find out more about each.