Artist Statement

Horror and painting / Yo Okada
I use images of personal memories, sad stories or news, defaced faces,
horror films or nightmares, which are holding potential visual pleasures.
Each painting has story, for example, 'Fire on my ex-boyfriend's house'
(2006) is based on the true story: my ex got a terrible big fire by accident,
which destroyed his house and studio completely including his artwork over
15 years. I heard this through the grapevine, and feel deeply hurt.
However I don't have any connection with him now directly.

So there is some distance between him and me as far as between subject
(the fact / my attachment) and object (painting).
I need that distance to convert private negative emotions / non-fictions
which, I found in daily life, into formal pleasures / fictions as surfaces of paintings.
In other word, horror can be reversed into humour under painting pleasures to me.