Junichi Nakashima “Flowers AND Dawns”

Inspiration of Beauty in the natural world

The writing of poetry and painting have evoked Junichi Nakashima’s creative imagination.
Being sick in bed at nine, Mr. Nakashima read the biography of Van Gogh, and deeply felt his way of life. Studying abroad in America at twenty-two, Mr. Nakashima brought his abstract drawings to a professor of art. Giving a significant glance at them, the professor whispered that Mr. Nakashima was a born artist. The professor’s words inspired him to create more. He began to act at thirty-three. Acting Van Gogh, he was seized with an irresistible impulse to paint sunflowers. Since that day he has talked with Van Gogh in his endless imagination.

The sky of the dawn charmed his spirit with its secret beauty one day twenty years ago. The visual inspiration of the spur of the moment has persisted since then. Striking through a shroud of darkness, the sun begins to rise on the horizon. The sun lights the multiple layers of clouds floating in the darkness and colors them gold and vermilion. Those clouds freely change their shapes. They become golden angels or dragons flying in the heavens. Then, suddenly they seem to be Greek gods that assembled in the temple of Olympus, looking down on this world separated from the heaven by the air.

He automatically recreates those changes of the natural world. The color deep blue making a marvelously beautiful contrast with some bright gold color, forms magnificent clouds. As the God of Creation freely creates the pure abstract beauty in the heavens, the artist himself participates in the sacred creation, trying hard to establish his world of art.

We hope you will experience Mr. Junichi Nakashima’s original world and find it enjoyable and enriching.

JUNICHI NAKASHIMA

Poet, Writer, Actor, and Artist. He began to write poems early in his teens. He studied painting and printmaking at Baylor University in Waco, Texas as an exchange student. Back in Japan, he exhibited his drawings and paintings in several galleries in Tokyo. He has been awarded prizes in several international art exhibitions, such as The Critic Prize in France-Japan; Modern Art Exhibition, Paris; The Excellence Prize in The Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition, Barcelona; Prize of Art and culture of Marais, Paris; the silver medal in Cannes International Grand Prix; the gold medal in Salon de Invierno, Barcelona; the gold medal at the Wine Label Festival, Les Pervillon de Bercy Paris; Prize of Premium of Artistic Innovation of Italian Wine at the Wine Label Festival, Rome; The prize of Association des Amis Musee Picasso at the International Art Exchange Exhibition, Kobe. His published poems  include “The Sea of Glass” , “Dreams of Melancholy” and English poems “Alpha and Omega”, and also collected essays “Dreams are your Future Memories”, and fiction, “A Calm Kiss on Thursday”.  As an actor, Nakashima starred in the independent film, “Confined Room” in Japan. In addition, he has written 45 scripts for solo-performances and performed more than a thousand times throughout Japan.