【高知】23歳の若さで急逝　土佐市出身の画家・大崎真理子が残したもの (24/05/16 19:39)

The title of the work is "Route 56 Visible." It's an oil painting of National Route 56 in Tosa City, painted with a soft brushstroke. A closer look reveals a realistically drawn car on the undulating road. It's a mysterious painting that blends reality and fantasy. The artist is a female artist from Tosa City. But what kind of person was she? The two people dancing innocently are studying art at graduate school. The woman on the left is no longer with us. She passed away four days after this video was filmed. Mariko Osaki, a painter from Tosa City, was 23 years old. Yoko Hanada, who filmed the dance video with her, said, "I haven't been able to see her since she passed away." Mariko Osaki was born in Tosa City in November 1994. She grew up in Tokyo as part of a family of three, and moved to her parents' hometown of Kochi Prefecture when she was in the second grade of elementary school. She went on to Kochi Gakugei High School from Tosa Municipal Takaoka Junior High School and graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts with honors. However, Mariko suddenly passed away at her home in Kyoto during the winter of her first year of graduate school. Hirata Shinichi, her high school teacher, remembers Mariko this way: Former Advisor of Kochi Gakugei High School's Art Club Hirata Shinichi "She painted trees in bright red. My first impression was that she painted things with a truly free and unrestrained spirit. I remember the colors were very intense." The painting, which Hirata describes as featuring such intense colors, still remains at her alma mater, Kochi Gakugei High School. Members of the art club gave us a tour. Member "Her use of color is wonderful. You might think she would paint the trees in brown, but she used yellow and green instead." The work, which club members call the "Hanger Painting," is an oil painting Mariko painted when she was in her second year of high school. This boldly colored painting depicts a coat hanger hanging from a tree in the garden of her home. Mariko went on to Kyoto City University of Arts, where she quickly distinguished herself. This is a massive painting, measuring 2.5 meters tall and 4 meters wide, that she painted in her fourth year of university. For this work, titled "The Visible and the Invisible," she won the Kyoto Mayor's Award, the highest award at her university, and graduated at the top of her class. Mariko posted the following about this work on social media: "A line from a Novalis poem: 'All that is visible touches the invisible.' This is the core of my paintings." These words, "The Visible and the Invisible," would become a major theme that Mariko continues to pursue. This painting was highly praised, and after she graduated from university and went on to graduate school, she suddenly lost the ability to paint for some reason. Kyoto City University of Arts Professor Nobutaka Shinya "As a fourth-year student, my work was highly praised, probably more than I expected. I went through a period of not knowing what to do for about three months after entering graduate school. I felt completely burned out. One day, I said, 'Professor, if I do this, I feel like I can paint,' and brought a small watercolor painting." Mariko brought a sketch of a backhoe (excavator) she had found on the banks of the Katsura River in Kyoto. Mariko suddenly lost her ability to paint due to the pressure of receiving such high praise. She began spending her days solely painting backhoe paintings. Including sketches and prototypes, the number of paintings she created reached over 200. Mariko's parents' home is in Tosa City, Kochi Prefecture. Many of Mariko's paintings lie hidden in a detached building. Many of them are of backhoes. They are part of the prototypes she had been working on over several months. Her mother, Fumiko, vividly remembers the time of Mariko's death. Mariko's mother, Fumiko Osaki, said: "The night before she died, my husband had the next day off, so I thought I'd give him a quick call. He told me she'd been sleeping soundly for 13 hours." On February 8, 2018, the opening day of her graduate school exhibition, where she was showcasing her backhoe paintings, my mother's cell phone rang. It was the police. Fumiko, her mother: "My husband couldn't believe it. He kept saying Mariko was late (even though it was an exhibition), and she hadn't arrived on time, so his friends came over to their apartment." Mariko was found dead in the bathtub of their apartment. Fumiko, her mother: "They thought she might have had a seizure in the bath. Even though the water level was low, she was lying down, so they thought she might have drowned." The water in the bathtub where Mariko died was reportedly just over 20 centimeters deep. The cause of death was ultimately unknown, but the circumstances suggested she may have drowned. Mariko overcame a period when she was no longer able to paint, and made many prototypes. She finally arrived at a painting titled "The Bac...