What I Learned

When I was awarded the “Grant for the Arts” from Arts Council England for the touring art project “The Way I See” in 2013, social networking service (SNS) was less highly regarded as an important tool for promoting a variety of businesses, and websites were considered more important. However, artists’ websites were often very poor and amateur. Six years later in 2019, the SNS environment has completely changed. It is said that Instagram has championed new businesses, prompting major business players to join the service to deploy strategic promotions. “Instagrammable” is a key word in promoting businesses.

Recently I have heard a professional art consultant saying, “Many gallerists are now looking for new talent through Instagram.” I became aware of this dramatic change in the period between my previous project supported by Arts Council England in 2013 and now, and as such I have developed an online presence and network as a professional practicing artist on various social media platforms. I have also improved my website through trial and error. As a result, by the time this project was confirmed by the Brantwood Trust director in late 2018, my social media platform had been well prepared.

However, if these efforts spoiled the time taken to research and create works, it would be like putting the cart before the horse. This is what I have learned: the more chances become available to showcase your artistic talent online, the more time you have to invest in promotion. However, creating a stronger body of work with each step is essential. This project “Conversation with Ruskin” has become a new milestone of my artistic career on many levels. Firstly, I believe that I achieved the highest possible quality conceptually as well as technically. The project represents, in a way, the culmination of my twenty-odd-year artistic

career. It has given me a clear focus, a future direction and an insight into a new level of potential for my art practice. Secondly, it gave me an extraordinary opportunity to hold a museum-level touring solo exhibition. This has inspired me to push myself to a higher level in the future. Lastly, I have learned the importance of resilience. By this, I mean not mere persistence or endurance but flexibility, positivity, selfawareness, risk-taking and humility.

Working with museum professionals with creative minds has been a gem of my experience in this project. Without their continuous support, encouragement, commitment and sheer professionalism, I couldn't imagine completing this project and achieving great success. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mr Howard Hull, the director of the Brantwood Trust and Prof. Sandra Kemp, the director of The Ruskin at Lancaster University and all the staff of both organisations. Most of all, the generous financial support by Arts Council England, who endorsed my project, allowed me to accomplish this project with the highest quality possible, in celebration of the legacy of the Victorian giant John Ruskin. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Arts Council England for their support.

exhibition was held immediately after

the first major Turner exhibition. At The

Ruskin: Museum, Library and Research

Centre at Lancaster University, where my

exhibition was held simultaneously with

the “Ruskin: Museum of Near Future”

exhibition at the different gallery, I had

the honour of closing the year-long

celebration of the bicentenary of John

Ruskin’s birth. I feel extremely honoured

and privileged to hold my solo exhibition

at such stunning museum galleries. Hideyuki's exhibition at Brantwood contained work which had an aesthetic mixture of a very recognisably Japanese character and a very modern and intellectual approach which had the unmistakeable “

individuality of Hideyuki's work. The double '3D' portrait of Ruskin, with

his tear for modern times was undoubtedly the centrepiece. It is a difficult work to completely understand but the craftmanship is of the highest level

and of course is made with precision and a good degree of imagination.

The 3D effect didn't work for me unfortunately but that is unimportant. What were perhaps more striking were the small works which dealt with

Fibonacci sequences, like the calf's head and the flower (so essentially

Japanese in subject and treatment) and in all the works, the essence of Ruskin's thoughts regarding the balance of nature, it's slowly revealing laws

13 and of how the whole is composed of ever-decreasing macro 'worlds', is clearly revealed. Science and 'art' in perfect balance. Martin Greenland Artist/ John Moores 24 first prize winner

”