The Art of Yumi Kato

At Design Festa there was a lot handy makers creating small little things and not at all as much art as I wanted to see. But the wonderful paintings of young Ms. Kato (a third year student at Tama Art University). She works in an interesting western style with traditional Japanese art materials. We chatted a bit about her art and her customers, and it turns out that while her post card pictures were flying off the shelves it is much harder in Tokyo to sell actual art. People tend not to have any space to hang it! In Tokyo where space is at a premium, nothing can be more honoring for an artist than have their work on someone’s walls! We also talked about her name, which in Japanese is written 加藤ユ美. I have never seen such a name but she confessed that the ユ character is to make her a bit more anonymous. I thought it was a fantastic touch. She has a nice website with more work and proper close ups. Enjoy!