Newsweek Japan July 8 issue has came out today with a special feature titled: 100 Japanese People the World Respects. Surprisingly, they chose me to be one of them. I am extremely, extremely, honored…I left Tokyo in the summer of 1999, exactly ten years ago. Since then, I had gone back to school for four years and now working as an illustrator and teaching at the school I studied, I now fortunately have clients all over the world and travel around for lectures and workshops, except for, well, in Japan. So, it really means extra special to me. And, I will try my best to live up to it… You can read the full article here (Japanese). The very special thank you goes to: Colin Joyce, the writer for Newsweek and the person who decided to interview me and convinced the Japanese editing team that I will make a good article (and he really did write an amazing article, which make me look 10X better!), photo-editor Hideko Kataoka, and editor Atsuko Koizumi who happened to be my high school classmate and we ended up having this serendipitous reconnection through this article.Also, Jason Treat of The Atlantic who gives me gallery page in the magazine every month through which Colin first found me, SooJin Buzelli of Asset International and my studio-mate Marcos Chin who made really kind comments about my work, and of course, everyone else who has supported me and be kind to me through out the years.
Thank you thank you thank you.