Vaadake selle 97-aastase siiani iga päev joonistava Jaapani kunstniku töid! Tekst on muidugi ka ülimalt hea.. "once you stop producing sparks, that's the end"...
Kumada pildid ja kogu intervjuu
I heard somewhere that your eyesight improved after you exceeded eighty years of age. Is that true?I hit the renaissance of my life when I turned seventy. That was when I really bloomed. Up until then it was like I had been like living in muddy water. (laughs) When I turned seventy, my works received recognition at an international picture book exhibition in Bologna, I got a lot of press and requests to speak publicly, and I got more work. When Italians and French people see my work, they say, “Mr. Kumada’s pictures are alive. The esprit is like that of Fabre.” Isn’t that nice? So my 80s were really like the bloom of youth for me. But when you reach such an age, you could really die at any moment. So I felt that it was important that I didn’t miss anything, and I took another close look around my garden. And that was when I realized I was able to see things in flowers and leaves that I hadn’t been able to see before, and my work got more detailed. Now when I look at the work I did when I was younger, it’s so amateurish that it embarrasses me. Most people rest on their laurels once they get into their seventies, but that was when life really started for me. (laughs)
Even so, you’re very youthful considering that you’re ninety-seven years old!I don’t drink energy drinks or do special exercises or anything. I’m like a leaf floating down a stream; I just go with the flow. It’s easier if you think of it as being moved by an outside force. (laughs) When people age or get successful, they start to think “This has to be a certain way.” But I don’t think of it that way and I haven’t come to any conclusions about anything even now. That’s how I stay alive. I’m still in the height of my career now. There’s no retirement for me. Age is something invented by people. I hate numbers. (laughs) Once you stop producing sparks, that’s the end.