Enter Goto's World

DREAMS ARE LIKE STRANGE STORIES

I take a look at the dream-like world of Japanese artist Goto Atsuko.

Sometimes I wish I'd never given up painting but sadly 20 years in design agencies left little time to sit at home and paint. Plus, sometimes when you're creative for a living it can be tough to muster the further energy to be creative in your own time too. But occasionally I come across artwork that makes me long for the days spent sitting in front of a bare canvas, pondering the first brush stroke and all it promises. In this case, the inspirational art in question is that of Goto Atsuko. 

Inspired by Izanami-no-Mikoto, the goddess of creation and death in the Shinto religion, which believes that nature is alive and populated by spirits, Goto explores the themes of death, decay and life in a peaceful, elegant and serene way as her ethereal subjects are surrounded by nature such as birds, butterflies, flowers, ladybirds and foliage.

“Dreams are like strange stories, landscapes, our memory builds unconsciously. I draw what comes up from our unconscious, like hidden feelings reflected in our dreams.”

She sticks to a very light, muted palette to underline the vulnerability of her subjects and reinforce the melancholic aura within her work. The hazy look she achieves is done so by using pigments which are actually made from lapis-lazuli and gum arabic. 

I could stare at these creations all day.