What are you into mostly drawing these days? and why?

I’m mostly into drawing nudes. My posting for nude models on craigslist last week was quite effective. Since moving to San Francisco, I have seen a lot of art-shows and exhibitions. It’s nice to see that the art scene is quite alive here, after coming from Japan where there is almost no local art scene. I pop into galleries every chance I get, see what other people are doing. It really helps build your self-esteem. Like, “Wow! This guy really sucks!” When drawing, I try to put into perspective my surroundings and relate that with the output and time I take to do a drawing or painting. For example, I live in a fast paced place with lots of people, I need to compliment that with lots of drawings with little or no attachment, like “small talk,” constant and with little meaning. San Francisco is great city with lots of interesting people. Being out pushing around, I get to make all kinds of new friends and meet new people. These experiences are the most influential in my life right now.






So I heard you're married now. What’s married life like?

Can I be honest for a second? Can I be honest? I-am-a-HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE fan, of married life. It has been great. We recently adopted two cats that we are trying to raise in a positive environment. My wife is great, she is very supportive of everything I do, and is really good at playing video games, she is Japanese so you know, they are like born with the genetic code for being awesome at video games. I bought an old Nintendo and a Mario game and she was like, “well…I’m not very good at this game,” and ended up staying awake all night and beating the entire game by the next morning. Simply Amazing!



Do you consider yourself an Artist who skates or a skater who is an artist?

I guess I am a skateboarder with a sketchbook.

I noticed you used to draw on your griptape alot..I havent seen any
griptape are lately..why not?

In these hard economic times, I am forced to spend more of my money on food and less of it on paint pens. But let me tell you a really interesting and disturbing story. A man living in a Tokyo high-rise apartment with his wife had gone missing and everyone seemed to be baffled about his whereabouts. Week after week, no leads or evidence had sprouted until someone who was taking their dog for a walk early one morning noticed what appeared to be some rotting meat in a plastic bag lined with condensation. The bag lied un-hidden and in open sight in one of Japan’s largest and most popular public parks in central Tokyo. The bag contained a human leg. A week passed, and under the same circumstances, another plastic bag was found! In this bag, a human arm. As time went on, more and more body parts were found, all in the same park. One day, about 45 minutes by train, West of central Tokyo, a family out for a picnic came across what appeared to be a piece of luggage, in the attempt to return the bag to its rightful owner, they opened the bag to find some sort of identification. Inside the bag was a human head! The missing head of the missing man whose body was in some forensic science lab being pieced together like a jig-saw puzzle! It turned out to be the head of the missing man. After a couple more weeks, there was no evidence linking to the killer, until surveillance tapes at the apartment were reviewed showing the wife of the man taking out plastic bags of trash out to the street. The woman was called into the police station, and broke down admitting to the killing of her husband who had been cheating on her.

The craziest part is that she took the head of her husband on the exact same train line that I took everyday to go to work and dumped the head only minutes from my apartment. Did that answer your question?



What inspires your drawings?

I was really inspired by my day to day events while living in Japan for the past three years. It wasn’t until recently where I was able to find a way to effectively illustrate those experiences. I found out that all I needed to do was draw constantly and fast-paced to compliment the fast-paced and chaotic society I was living in. I also started reading lots of Japanese comics and watching old animations that focused on Japanese ghost stories that I thought were really interesting, because as I did my research, I began to realize that a lot of people I talked to actually were strong believers of the stories. I ended up doing this series of Japanese ghost paintings and drawings while in Japan that I neglected to bring with me. A couple got displayed in a skate shop store front that I didn’t have time to go check before I left.





Anyone you would like to thank?

I would like to thank a lot of people and since this is my first official interview, I need to thank everyone that I could have “Thanked” in previous interviews, if they had existed, but they didn’t. So I’ll start in no particular order of importance: Thank you, Matt Bollis, Tsubasa Shinobu, Hidetsugu and Chiyoko Shinobu, Dave Steel, Simon True, Soy Panday, Roy Sunday, Vivien Feil, Brendan Connelly, Adam Burgess, Cory Hainline, Shun Moroi, Uruma Masanori, Luke Hunt, Eli Fleming, Ethan Walsh, Ryan Damian, Handjob Clothing, Swiss Julian, Katsumi Minami, Rich Adler, Teppei, Toru Nakamura, Toshi Honda, Taisuke, Neal Shipe, Pizza Kid Clothing, Pat Gallaher, Tim Huey, Berol Pens, Golden Paints, Sumi Ink, Felt Tip Pens, and my sponsor, My Parents Skateboards.

photo:John?

photo:Nori

photo:Nori

photo:?