A little girl with a mushroom haircut and red cheeks, glaring at you intensely; that is what viewers are faced with when looking at Megumi Morimoto’s artwork. Some say she’s cute, some say she’s scary. Her little girl character, that is. Megumi Morimoto is an up and coming artist in her third year of college.
Born in Eniwa City, Morimoto’s dexterity comes from her mother, who was a kindergarten teacher. She first discovered her signature character while attending Sapporo School of The Arts, were she learned to channel feelings of uneasiness and confinement into her art. “Somehow, she always ends up looking like me,” she says.
She attended the Iwamizawa branch of Hokkaido University of Education in 2008 and studied in the Department of Fine Arts and Music. The same year, she won the grand award in the new artist competition, “Acryl Awards.” A member of a Hokkaido modern art group exhibit organization contacted her about showing some pieces in their exhibits, which gave her the opportunity to show her work in Beijing and Shanghai the following year.
Ryusuke Ito, professor at Hokkaido University of Education, says, “Megumi Morimoto always struggles with the oddity that is herself. She even passes an essential criteria of being a top grade artist, which is to create many pieces in many styles.”
In February of this year, Sapporo local Yumi Fuzuki won the 15th annual Chuya Nakahara award for her book of poems. Fuzuki was the youngest to ever receive the award at eighteen years old. Morimoto drew pieces for her book. “I was always interested in Morimoto’s artwork,” says Fuzuki when asked about her collaboration with Morimoto.
Morimoto begins her final year as a student this spring. Her growth as an artist will undoubtedly be one not to miss.
Acryl Award winner, “On the field” (2008) ©Megumi Morimoto
Writer Yuko Sato
Translation by David Neptune
