mokumoku studio won the second prize of the 11th New Children’s Picture Book Prize (Atarashi Sosaku Ehon Taisho) for one of our newest work “Ringo Mushi -Apple Bug-“. It became a very good opportunity for me to show our picture book to the prominent artists and picture book experts and have them evaluate my work.

I always felt hesitant about competitions in general. You need to expose your innocent art to people who you have never met and have them judge whether it is good or bad.

The hierarchy of the awards are clearly defined but in the end the quality of art can’t be quantitatively indicated. The reasons can be verbally explained later but what you need to rely on during the judgment is your sense. Sense is very obscure and uncertain. It is depressing to think that viewers could be influenced by the judgement when they see the work.  

However, I try to change my mindset. It is a tiny part of the process and an outcome of a vast journey and it has so much more possibility.  Maybe entering my work to a competition is not bad when I think in this way. I make art to express something. Sometimes I just want to hide in my closet during the process. Birds of a feather flock together. When I feel stuck maybe it is a good idea to expose my work to the outside air and get various critiques, which might lead to further growth and bring you unexpected findings. 

I would like to try again.

chikara

＞ The 11th New Children’s Picture Book Prize