About Flower Project

About Flower Project

What is this picture?

Many lost houses due to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. They are still living in temporary houses. Spending long time without the security of their own home makes it difficult to stay motivated.

I painted their portraits in Ootsuchi Apartment, Iwate in 2011.

フラワープロジェクトとは?

One old lady who was working as Ama. (Ama is the job to get shell fishes by skin diving in the sea). After the unspeakable sufferings she went through during the disaster, she stopped talking to others and her facial expression was stiff and impassive.

But when I started to draw her portrait, her facial expression softened and she begun to speak about her life to me. Finally she told me that she lost her home and ship by the Tsunami. She seemed happy to see her portrait and brought tears in her eyes because she has lost all her photo albums with her home.

About Flower Project

Many people were happy to have their portraits drawn probably because they lost everything including their photo albums with the Tsunami.
The lady in down right said to me that when she went to check out the home after the first impact of the tsunami with her friend, the sudden second wave of tsunami came. The friend beside her was swept away by that wave right next to her. She told me that she loves pink flowers, so I drew her portrait with a pink background.

About Flower Project

After feeling confirmed that art is welcomed by people in the affected area, I started to visit temporary houses in Tohoku coast area with the members of the organization and started to drew pictures. The Flower Project is the organization with the power of art which attempts to affect people’s feeling, the sense of value, or the value of the land.

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