A regular member of the JASGP’s Japanese conversation club, Maiko Sembokuya is a talented artist who tells stories about Philadelphia with her paintings and illustrations.

Her works show a careful sense of observation and breathe a reality that is easy to connect to. The bold shapes and simplified lines in her small paintings cut past visual clutter to deliver a scene that can immediately be recognized, that makes the viewer think “I’ve seen that before” at the same time as “I’ve never seen it that way before.”

Hailing from Chiba Prefecture in eastern Japan, Maiko graduated from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. The images in her small paintings and illustrations series are taken from her time in Philadelphia, and gave me a fresh set of eyes to look at the city. I was interested to find out more, and asked her a few questions about the process behind her engaging artwork.

JASGP: Are you always looking for things around town to draw/paint or do you see something and suddenly want to paint it?

Maiko Sembokuya: I do one or two pieces per day if I have time, but even if I don’t have time to do paint or draw, I try to find ideas all the time. I love observing people and scenes in Philadelphia. I can find interesting people if I walk the city. Their features, outfits and behavior usually attract me because they express their personality and history. Also the colors in the city influence my work. I recently got excited looking at the houses in the city exciting. Even though they have similar construction, they have their own personality with use of daring colors.

JASGP: Do you think you are more influenced by Japanese artists and technique or by western ones?

Maiko: I think I am more influenced by western painters, because I began to learn art in Philadelphia. I did not think I would be able to study art until I came to Philadelphia. I like 19th century western painters, Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Gauguin and Cezanne. One artist who influenced me a lot is the French artist/cartoonist George Ferdinand Bigot. The way he observes people is incredible. I also spent time with Japanese animation in my childhood. I think this influences my works too.

JASGP: When you make a piece, do you add a story it or it just snapshot?

Maiko: I don’t see stories when I see people and scenes that catch my eye, but I come to find stories as I paint or draw them. It’s not a snapshot, rather the people and scenes in Philadelphia are the original sources of my illustration.

JASGP: What are your plans for your art in the future?”

Maiko: I will continue my series of small paintings. What I would like to do is try a version of the series from another country. Also I would like to go back to large paintings with other subject matter too. I will keep illustrating and try to find new ways of expression through painting. I feel I just started. I will keep searching.

Check out Maiko’s other work at www.maikosembokuya.com .

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