Concept

This painting is a commission, it’s the second painting this collector gets from me, he’s such a great person to work with because he gives me a concept he wants but he completely trusts my process and aesthetic from thereon. I guess it’s the point of choosing an artist in the first place, but not everyone acts that way, they try to control the outcome and that’s not how great art is made. He wanted me to do a painting based on the book Dakoto written by Musashi. If you’re not familiar with it Musashi was a Japanese warrior who later on became a Buddhist and writer. In Dakoto he writes about the principles he learned through life. There’s a lot of criticism to what he concluded, but overall there’s great wisdom too. Musashi became famous by challenging the fighting methods used until that point and using two swords instead of one. Sometimes even wood ones. He always won. That’s why I used the cross katanas to represent him in the painting. In the background you can see the Kyoto gates passway, they were thought to be protective against evil forces, they represent wisdom and they belong to where he did. Their intention was the same intention Musashi had when leaving behind his books and wisdom to us.