A couple of days ago, I attended an art exhibit featuring Mari Yamazaki, who is a very famous Japanese cartoonist. To be honest, I'm not interested in manga, anime, J-pop, or Japanese dramas at all, and my friends from overseas whom I've been talking with aren't interested in manga and anime either, so I have no idea how well known Mari Yamazaki is outside of Japan. I've never read her manga either.

Even so, after reading several articles about her, I became very curious about her life, which is very dramatic. She traveled around some European countries alone at the age of 14. In France, she met an elderly Italian guy who was a famous pottery artist and had stayed in touch with him. Thanks to the connection, she studied abroad to learn art in Italy at the age of 17 and lived there for 11 years. While living in Italy, she met an Italian poet and started living with him. Her boyfriend didn't work, so she worked as a street painter. She got pregnant and gave a birth to a son. She broke up her boyfriend and became a single mom. To raise her son she became a cartoonist.

When she was 35, she met the grandson of the Italian pottery artist she's known for years. Back then, the grandson was 21 and a college student, but they got married. Due to her husband's reserch, she moved around Syria, Egypt, Portugal, and the US, and she now lives back in Italy with her husband. Thanks to his stepfather, her son can speak Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and English fluently.

I strongly believe that people we meet play an important role in shaping our lives. In Mari Yamazaki's case, that person was the Italian pottery artist. She decided to study abroad in Italy thanks to him and got married his grandson. What an extraordinary life!

Now that I’ve finished the introduction, I'd love to share the pictures of her art pieces with you. She studied at an art academy, so her drawings skills are truly impressive.

I saw some of her childhood's drawings as well. The picture below shows two pieces of her drawing at the age four. My own drawing at that age probably looked very similar.

However, the next picture shows her painting at the age of 16. Hers already looks way better than mine.

The picture below shows another piece of her drawing at the age of 19. When I was 19, I was completely away from art. This definitely showed me how important practicing was. When we first start painting, we're all beginners, but practice makes a huge difference.

Another interesting thing I learned is that she is good friends with Tatsuro Yamashita, who is a very famous Japanese musician.

She painted his portrait and it looked fabulous!

They were her comic books. She's especially good at describing Italian culture. Although I'm still not interested in reading manga, I'd love to read some books written by her sometime.

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