One day I will move into a small room of the apartment, to put myself in completely new situation, in an empty room.
The situation will be kind of encounter with myself and the space, how I can start to live there, how I can create
something from nothing.
I would like to make something nice to renew the empty room. Also, I would like to use the room to get concentrated to make my work.
In making a drawing I will consider how I react on myself being in the space, and how I can negotiate with the
surrounding situation.
For me drawing is the simplest creative act I could ever do. It can directly reflect my thoughts and feelings onto a
paper, such as taking notes. I would then see what I thought, saw, felt during that time in the drawing. Hopefully I could capture it successfully and the viewer could see it as a record of my presence there.
Manami Yoshimoto
7:37 am
Finally I started to work there, in a small room of the flat no.603.
8:36 am
I think a white paper is perfectly beautiful. There is purity and the possibility of infinity.
I always feel guilty when I start to drawing on it and I am afraid if I can create something more beautiful than the paper before I draw.
8:38 am
But anyhow I have am encouraged to do it, so I started.
8:44 am
5 minutes later
8:57 am
9:09 am
9:11 am
I am seriously making drawings to capture the inspiration that I got from my surroundings.
This is shape of the flat outside that I see from my room…
I am sincerely trying to make something beautiful work…
but I wonder, is this beautiful? Is it something we deserve to see? more valuable than a piece of paper ?
I do not know at all but anyhow as ‘an artist’, I have to take responsibility in my work and to the people who see this work later on.
9:12 am
9:58 am
1 hour later since I started drawing
The drawing was getting confused and messy.
I took a rest at that time. Because I felt that from my experience, this drawing should be finished quite soon and I needed to leave this space to get my mind clear, once, toward the end.
But maybe it is just an excuse…. I was too tired to work, and also needed to go shopping.
10:05 am
To buy toilet paper and Coca-Cola
and more stuff for lunch. pasta, salad, hum, juice, etc
10:28 am
I prepared the lunch. Since I started working in the early morning without eating anything, I was so hungry and could not even move anymore.
Anyway eating…..
12:04 pm
Then I went back to work…
I sometimes think and question myself, why am I doing art? is my artwork so important to others? Does anyone care what I am doing in my work? Even though I am so serious when I face making my artwork, it is not more important than things in my every day life and others, the people next to me.
For this project of mine ‘One day Living Drawing’, I asked to Sasa Miljevic, who is my best friend, to help me making documentation by taking pictures (as you see all on this site). He kindly concented to help me but I was feeling so bad (because he was already so tired because he helped me a lot on another things too.) And I was sorry for wasting his time.
I cried in this morning in the train to come to the flat 603, to make my work there. Because of that I did not want to succeed in making documentation of my work at the expense of his time. But I needed to show it to others (as you see it now) and I needed someone to make it. Somehow I was pessimistic to my work at that time, maybe I was just too tired by being there in the early morning without sleeping enough. I really cried like a kid, and said ” I don’t wanna be ‘an artist’! I am so sorry. I am wasting time and money to make my work is for nothing. Do you know how much this paper costs? It was 17 euros! I cannot spend such money to buy clothes or expensive food, but I bought this paper for nothing!”
To be honest, I sometime feel that ‘an artist’ must be selfish and arrogant. Because I know that ‘an artist’ working always needs others help but it is not always necessary. Mostly ‘an artist’ expects too many things from others and thinks that ‘it is because for my art’- which is not so important and not really valuable in fact. This is what I was doing in my work there. Then I knew that I should care more about my dear friend than my work. After a couple of hours working, I decided to let him go back home.
16:21 pm
17:39 pm
I just stood alone in the room for a while and thought what I should do now, in this empty room.
17:42 pm
I started drawing again, without documentation but without feeling obligated to anyone.
After all, it was the only thing I could do.
21:47 pm
This is the end of my work and a day.
Next day
I just left this drawing in the room.
Could you see this as a record of my presence there?
Is this more beautiful than the paper before I drew it? Is this more valuable than the 17 euros I spent?
Please check it if you have a chance to visit there. The drawing is in room no.603.