Yusuke Nakamura |"Yusuke Nakamura SPLIT!" Exhibition INTERVIEW (2/3)

ー Looking back on 21 years of painting, including this exhibition, what kind of illustrator do you think you are?

Nakamura: It feels like you're working hard all the time. I think you're drawing carefully from the first Azican jacket. Now, if you look at it, the way of showing and communicating the picture is still poor. I don't think you'll miss it very much. I wish I could have done this a little more, so I'm satisfied each time. I can see my own attention that I have never noticed. You want to praise yourself, don't you?

ー The series of portrait girls is as if you were looking into a kaleidoscope. The composition and precision are consistent.

Nakamura: That's right. In this venue, various works of my past are lined up. For example, in Gallah, there are various things from 5,000 yen to 500,000 yen. Regardless of Galla, they are all consistent. You've been doing your best.

What is the reason why you can continue to work hard?

Nakamura: It's a grudge (laughs). When I was in elementary school, my classmates lifted me up with "Nakamura-kun, draw a picture-", but when I was a junior and senior high school student, I was treated as "I'm sorry to draw a picture alone"! The baseball club was awarded in the morning ceremony just by going to the district qualifying, but I won the first prize at the prefecture's poster contest, but I couldn't touch anything. That resentment (laughs). It will be the engine of drawing until the vengeance dies.

Is the driving force still “grudge”?

Nakamura: I think it's better to have it now. Also, the person who paints a picture feels like it has no sociality. It can be said that I was able to put it into the picture because there is no sociality, but I always felt a complex there. During my break, when everyone was playing dodgeball, I was painting by myself. You can't be invited to a beautiful university, a gokon or a barbecue. What can I do when I work? I didn't know.

-Drawing pictures was also a means of connecting with society.

Nakamura: Yes. Is it okay to live to have a painting job and connect with society? It's also a confirmation. I'm glad that there are needs and that they are properly absorbed in society. That's why I'm happy to be exhibiting at PARCO in Shinsaibashi, where there are so many people.

ーYou have done so much work, and you still think about that?

Nakamura: This is the case with connecting with society, and there are a handful of illustrators that I saw when I was young and are still active in the same way. In the world of illustrations, both the drawing and the viewer are in their 20s and 30s, and I feel that it is a culture with a short life expectancy. Considering that, I thought, "This is a course that you can get bored after 5 years!" So I've been thinking a lot so that it doesn't happen. Among them, it is fundamental to draw hard, but it is absolutely important.