ST088 Bob Marley

Snow Treasure

Painting size: 16cm x 23cm

Framing size: 37cm x 47cm

I don't paint portraits or anything like that very often, but when I do, I can only paint people I truly want to paint.

Most of the models I want to paint are musicians. I'm always listening to music when I'm painting, so perhaps it's because painting and music are inseparable, but I feel compelled to paint people who express something beyond the framework of music.

That something is connected to life, to the very act of being alive.

I'm not particularly attached to the idea that a portrait should resemble the person, which might be a necessary requirement. I use the model as a starting point, and then I want to see what the painting itself captures.

Therefore, I don't make any effort to draw them to look like the originals, and inevitably, they don't resemble them.

However, this quick oil pastel sketch of Bob Marley is not just a likeness, it's Bob himself. It captures Bob Marley both when he's singing and when he's not.

I think Bob Marley was the first musician to emerge from the Third World—neither America nor Europe—and become a global star.

Bob's voice carries the soul. It will continue to be listened to for a long time to come.

When I showed this Bob Marley painting to Kiyomi Kawasaki, who I entrust with framing, she said she didn't know who Bob Marley was.

I was quite surprised, or rather, very surprised.

I can't believe there's anyone in this world who doesn't know Bob Marley.

But if I think about it calmly, I don't watch TV at all, so there are many celebrities that are well-known to the public, and even people who are well-known in their field are unknown to me because I'm not interested in that field.

I reconsidered and realized it was the same thing.

Then he muttered, "The colors of reggae are red, yellow, and green." Suddenly, I thought it would be interesting to frame it with a mat like that.

Then, the female assistant who was there murmured, "Perhaps it would be better if Kiyoshi, who drew the picture, chose the mat."

Kiyomi gazed intently at Bob Marley's painting and declared, "I'll do it."

This is the resulting framing.

Normally, you would simply arrange red, yellow, and green mats of the same width around the painting, and that would be the end of it. However, Kiyomi used black as a restraining element and left a wider area at the top of the red mat.

This meant that the painting wasn't contained within a frame, but rather Bob's soul seemed to leap out towards us.

If I may say so myself, the painting is a masterpiece, but the framing is also a masterpiece.

Incidentally, Kiyomi apparently cut paper and pasted it onto the mat.