Japanese firefighters, gratitude, and listening to birds: meet muralist JUURI
Photo provided by JUURI
JUURI transforms bare walls into powerful, Japanese-themed artspaces. Currently working from Oklahoma City, JUURI hopes her work is an oasis of quiet in turbulent times and that it sparks a resurgence of love for traditional culture among the new generation, both in Japan and overseas.
Coming up to Canada for the first time, JUURI is painting a mural on the side of Pho Noodle House at 81 Larch Street for Up Here 9.
She took a few minutes to talk to us about what inspires her and what she thinks about while she’s painting!
How did you decide to pursue art?
I became an artist because I guess I've never thought of any other alternative. Since I was about three or four years old, I thought I would be an artist, and I just never thought any differently. It's a really short answer, because it's not really a big reason. It's just that I've never thought of doing anything else in my life.
Photo provided by JUURI
What inspired this piece?
I'm Japanese-American, born in Tokyo, and my work is influenced by my Japanese heritage. A lot of my themes are from Japanese history, folklore, and Kabuki theatre. For this particular piece, I was inspired by 1600s-era firefighters in Japan. They have a distinctive look; they have full sleeve tattoos, and they have this cloth wrapped on their heads. They just have a really cool look. I was kind of inspired by them, so I've done a girl in a similar style—a girl firefighter. And the building I'm painting on is actually the side of a pho restaurant, a Vietnamese restaurant. I wanted to also be respectful of that, so the flowers you see as tattoos on her arms and the piece of cloth on her head are actually made out of lotuses, which are the national flower of Vietnam. I also know you guys have had some problems with wildfires, and just wildfires in general in the whole world are a problem.
Unkind words that people say are a kind of fire that destroys a lot of things, too. So the inspiration is that maybe we can all be firefighters and put out those kinds of fires.
Photo provided by JUURI
What do you think about when you’re painting?
When I'm working on pieces, I try to, first of all, have a grateful and positive attitude. The opportunity to be able to travel all over the place and paint my designs is really amazing. Sometimes things go wrong when you're painting a mural, like it's too hot or too cold or some crazy weather event happens or something breaks or you spill something or you run out of something. So, I try to deal with these problems in a calm manner, with a grateful mindset. Sometimes it's hard if I'm on a schedule, but I try to interact with people who stop by to talk about the art. That's one of my favourite things about mural art, is that you get to talk to people as they're discovering it there on the street.
Do you listen to anything while you paint?
I listen to different things at different times. Sometimes, if it's in the morning, I just like to listen to the birds or hear the sounds of the city around me. Sometimes I listen to podcasts. I'm really interested in business podcasts. Or sometimes I listen to Japanese pop music or even traditional Japanese music, which has a really distinctive and kind of unusual sound that most people probably don't listen to. Even Japanese people I'm sure don't listen to that music, but it just depends on today what I feel like.
Photo provided by JUURI