STORY BEHIND THE ART OF ASUKA HISHIKI

17th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at The Horticultural Society of New York

Carrot

Daucus carota

One day, my partner brought me a bunch of carrots from his father’s small garden. These were small and some of them were twisted, but I know the intense bright orange carrots taste really good. Yes, these are beautiful vegetables.

I had been having a hard time finding my kind of vegetables since I moved back to Japan. Most of the fresh supply at Japanese regular supermarkets are boring, a perfect shape and super clean, wrapped in a perfect and clean plastic bag, placed on a perfect and clean shelf. I was very disappointed at the beginning, but soon I found several small local farmers’ stores nearby and most importantly, I realized that my partner’s father grows vegetables

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The carrots I received were exactly my kind of vegetable. It reminded me when I was at the farmers’ market at Union Square, checking indecisively which one to pick for the next project. It was such an agony to choose one, but it didn’t take too long. I picked a carrot which looked like a lady with a hat. I thought that this lady carrot has a little eccentric and humorous feeling, too – an elegant lady in a splendid outfit but with her hat upside down.

After hearing my thoughts on the carrot, a friend of mine commented that children easily feel that everything is alive - creatures, toys, rocks or anything. I thought it was so beautiful! Yes, I look at the world not only through a grown-up point of view with big ideas, but also like a child without a border between reality and imagination.

Every time I bump into thoughts like this I think of the following quote by Dore Schary: “The true portrait of a man is a fusion of what he thinks he is, what others think he is, what he really is and what he tries to be.” I think that life is always some kind of translation because everyone sees everything through their very own filter.

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Read more about this artist's work: Weird, Wild & Wonderful