Riusuke Fukahori, Technique, & Supplies

Holy wow! I love finding painters or crafts people that you can watch & be amazed by. Amazed at their patience. Amazed at their practice & dedication. Amazed at their technique. This fellow in the video below is amazing. He paints goldfish. Nothing really amazing about that, right. Wrong. He paints them in layers between resin. This makes them look real & 3D. The amount of time & practice it took him to be able to perfect this is impressive.

"Goldfish Salvation" Riusuke Fukahori from ICN gallery on Vimeo.

So many people don't understand time when it comes to art. Artists use time differently than almost anyone. Processes are repeated again & again to hone & perfect technique. It takes years to be able to lay paint down in brush stroke after brush stroke properly...or improperly, whatever your going for. The planning stages, the sketches, the reworks, the priming of the surfaces. Even in Mr. Fukahori's work, the resin must be mixed properly, the wooden boxes built & sanded smooth. An artist must have a composition in his/her mind. Everyone is different. When you see a work of art & the price tag confuses you, remember this. You aren't just paying for paint on a canvas or paint between layers of resin. You are paying for the work. All of the work that the artist has gone through to finish this one piece.

That and all the materials. Paint isn't cheap. Neither are brushes. If you haven't ever bothered to look, go to your local craft store & check out tubes of oil paint & acrylic. Not the cheap-o boxed sets either, but the single tubes of color. Then look at brushes. Not cheap brushes that look like they are made of straw & will flake off in the painting, but REAL brushes. Then check out gallery quality canvas. It gets pricey.

I guess my point here is, "WOW! Look at this guy painting Goldfish!" and don't be a cheapskate when it comes to shelling out money for good art. Look at it like you would look at supporting your local farmer's market or local restaurant. You are getting something of quality & in return are helping someone create more of that & possible helping them afford new carpet in their house, not bonuses for some jack-hole that could give a crap about the struggles of middle or lower America or the world.