Naoko Benom-Miura

Naoko Benom-Miura

Fukuoka, Japan

About Naoko Benom-Miura

One day, when I was 8, I had to draw my mom as a homework assignment. After painting my mom's face. I worked on the background, adding bright red. Strangely, my mom's face looked like it shrank as I changed the background. I was shocked to see how colors change what we perceive in our minds and with our eyes. That was when I decided to become an artist. I worked on sketches, pencil drawings, and design all day from morning to night, and sometimes even in my dreams in order to enter an art college. i was able to enter art school in Tokyo, majoring in textile design, and stayed in Tokyo after college to work as a graphic designer. After 8 years of this hectic lifestyle, I felt like I was totally lost. I knew I needed to change everything right then. I chose to leave Japan, and went to Los Angeles, California, and then, to Eugene, Oregon, to work on my art and my life. I worked for a clay artist, and went to the University of Oregon to study more about art, design and English. Then, I worked at a design office as a graphic designer, and another company as a web designer. Now, I know what I was looking for when I was doing that. I was looking for the answer these questions. “What’s my relationship with design? What’s my relationship with art?” I was frustrated that I couldn’t get any answers. I began to think, “If there is a God of art, they must hate me! Fine! I hate them too!” I suffered through a year in which I could not create anything. I deeply realized I just have to keep creating art, otherwise I will be dead, even if the God of art hates me. In 2007, when I was working as a graphic designer, one of my clients misordered and gave me an illustration job, not a graphic design job. But, for some reason, I decided to take that job. That illustration job reminded me of the homework when I drew my mom back in elementary school. I felt like I finally found the answer that I was looking for the whole time! This is when I really started to be an illustrator and artist. After 9 years of living in America, I returned to Japan in 2008. In 2014, I opened an office/ workshop in a little port town in Fukuoka with people who work on town development and planning. I started to consider art from a social point of view. That was also a big turning point for me. In 2017, I started to take story classes with professor Minoru Meguro, learning the art of poetry and literature. I started to develop a broader love for the existence of art. This also became a huge turning point.

Education:

Hiroshima Art Laboratory
Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo, Japan, A.A. major: textile design
(Joshibi is known as one of the 5 best private art schools in Japan)
University of Oregon, Eugene Oregon, Art, design, sociology, and language classes

Events:

Every-month live painting show at a gallery at Fukuoka, Japan
Every-month Exhibition
Every-month Art workshop

Exhibitions:

1991 Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo, Exhibition
1993 Design Festival Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan
1994 Design Festival Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan
1994 Copperplate printing group "Zabo House" Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan
1995 Copperplate printing group "Zabo House" in Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan

2013 Started to plan exhibitions, events and festivals

2013 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor
2015 the first own exhibition
2016 Outsider Art "Cats and Jimi Hendrix" producer and contributor
2016 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor, Hiroshima, Japan
2016 Started "Once a Month Exhibits"
2016 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor, Fukuoka, Japan
2017 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor, Fukuoka, Japan
2018 Exhibition in Darkness, "Two Tone"
2019 "Cats and Dogs" exhibition
2019 Art Festival in Forest, Fukuoka, Japan
...... and many more