FUKO ITO

Fuko Ito hails from Kobe, Japan where she grew her love for storytelling through reading books and comics. She moved to the US to study printmaking and drawing and currently resides and works in Lexington, KY as an artist and educator. Through drawing and storytelling, Fuko hopes to take her viewers onto a plushy, heartfelt journey to an imagined, soft alternate universe inhabited by a community of naked and radically soft creatures known as fumblys.

Fuko’s creative practice in storytelling reflects on personal and collective experiences of coping, forgiving, and mending interpersonal fissures. She is driven to make images that imagine a softer and more compassionate world while reflecting on the social implications and struggles of living among a community of emotional beings. In her studio as well as her teaching practice, visual representation of compassion and dignity is at its core.

Plush is a texture that is both soft yet firm — it is able to absorb trauma and mend itself back into shape. Fuko imagines our hearts and emotional capacities to have the same visceral effect of being bruised and healed like plush. In her drawings, she portrays naked, vulnerable creatures called fumblys in its plushy ecosystem. fumblys fill their infinite ecosystem with plush to save themselves from the collapse, fall, and heartache they experience from living among themselves.

Hi Fuko! Thanks for joining me for Mint Tea. To begin, what’s your favorite tea?

I like jasmine tea, but also citrusy ones, like the jam kind, the Korean ones. I like it cold and hot, too.

Could you tell me about your background and your practice?

I come from Kobe, Japan, and my parents own a clothing company together, and I'm an only child. So most of what I did when I was a kid, I was really shy, like, so shy that I felt like I was gonna throw up every time I was called in class. I was just dreading to talk in public. So, what I mostly did was drawing and reading comics, and that just continued. I got into music a little bit during high school, but drawing has always been the thing I've enjoyed the most. So when I was going to college, I wanted to either be a trombone player or an artist, and I was like, which way am I going to go? I decided that being a graphic designer might be more lucrative, as a job career. But going to undergrad, grad school, and up until now, I got into printmaking, because it's so tied with graphic design, but I didn't really like the rigidity, and all the industry standards of, like, Adobe. I like working more with my hands rather than working things digitally. That led me to go into studio art, and then move to printmaking, to drawing and elaborating on a more personal sort of narrative that I've developed over the past couple of years.

What projects are you working on right now?

Currently, I'm working on a series of drawings for an online exhibition. I think it's going to start beginning of June, with a curator from Dallas – the platform is called Musik. And my work, I've been leaning into how we haven't been moving at all, like we've been very, very stationary, and so I kind of placed the fumblys in these very stationary environments, where there's so much nestled in texture. I kind of emote what I’ve personally felt like I'm going through over the past year or so, and reflect that in the drawing itself.

I am the most familiar with your colored pencil drawings. Can you talk about how and why you choose to work with colored pencils?

I think familiarity of materials, and also the immediacy of drawing is what I really enjoy. You know, being able to doodle in my sketchbook, and start refining, like starting my sketch on a sheet of paper and that changing over time without really showing the trace of it. I like that fluidity in the process. I basically underpaint my drawing squares with watercolor, and then go in with color pencil. So I try to create the illusion of texture three-dimensionally so that it's really plush. Some areas are flat, but that plush texture is sort of important with my work because I find it as texture that's absorbing trauma, but then it also kind of mends itself back, so it has the ability to kind of exist flexibly and softly in the world. Combining some watercolor and colored pencil allow me to get that softness in the texture, but also the clarity, so that's kind of why I enjoy using it. It's also a medium that I primarily used as a kid, and I like the color mixing that happens with color pencil too. Watercolor glows a lot, too, so that it penetrates with the color pencil, and I really like that aspect of light, using watercolor. So that's kind of gone into how I develop my work overall.

What’s your drawing process like? Do you start with a color scheme, composition and story in mind? Or does the image reveal itself to you organically as you draw?

I actually start out with words. I actually like jotting down adjectives and feelings, you know, sentences. Through that, I actually go to like a thesaurus, and look at words that connect in meaning, but have a different ring to them, or I make up words, too. I reflect emotional states through visual texture, so that's how I start brainstorming what kind of textures I can start to develop. So, I start with writing, and then from there, I pick several words that I like, and then that becomes the overarching idea, and then I start making branches that sort of strand out of it to start making individual images that make a body of work. So I try to come up with like a very generalized idea, and then try to pinpoint it individually in my drawing.

When it comes to drawing based off of that greater idea, I started looking at figurative poses and classical paintings. I'm interested in how figures play within an image, because I think for most religions, there's a very clear visual hierarchy, like what happens at the top, what happens in the bottom, you know, who is lesser, who is has the power, who plays with the power. And we have very, like, contorted figure positions, and I'm sort of interested in fumblys – my characters – sort of performing that. I try to look through and research a couple of visual references that I can make, but from there, I try to put the words and ideas with the references that I found and put them together as an image. I do thumbnail sketches, but at the end of the day, if I get a general idea, I just like put it on the paper I'm working on and then work my way towards having a line contour drawing, and then from there I start determining color and finishing it up.

Can you give me an example of some of the words that inspired you?

Yeah. I started out with this body of work feeling really heavy. I think being indoors and not exercising has caused me so many back problems and also just physical discomfort at this point. Also, it's been really scary this year, so I think, I always cried a lot, but I think I've cried more just to just let things out or clarify things. I would have words like “heavy,” “pain,” “physical discomfort,” and then from there, I would go to the thesaurus, and come up with words like “weight.” And that weight, I connected to not necessarily weight physically, but the weight in the heart and emotion. I started making this chart of things where little clouds start to connect, and then from there, if it's more of this darker feeling or emotional state, my colors, of course, go cooler or darker. If it's a little bit more lighthearted in tone or I want it to come across that way, I go for fresher and like warmer colors. So those things definitely contribute to the way I makes decisions visually, too.

What inspires your images? Can you talk about any imagery or symbols that you like to work with?

Yeah, the characters, fumblys, I was really trying to talk about emotional labor, because whenever we interact with anyone, whether it be your partner or your friends, we never are at equilibrium, we are always better at something than the other. So, like, I'm not good at like catching up with friends. When friends call me, I forget that I have to initiate and continue this relationship. Even with my partner, he's good at talking things through more than I am, because I just go in my head, and just, things start to explode, and I get stressed out. The way I wanted to kind of talk about how difficult it is to grow and maintain a relationship, I thought about how there's something, when you get really sad, I literally feel my heart, like, getting compressed, and it kind of hurts a little bit because it's a little bit sore. I thought, okay, that kind of maybe looks like and feels like plush, and not the plush that we see on actual furniture, but something that's even more bouncy and much more imagined, in a texture that can't be fully realized or replicated in the real world. I wanted to make that its own sort of ecosystem, so I created the plushscapes, the cloud-like shapes. It's meant to capture the little creatures if they fall, if they were to, like, have a relationship that didn't work out, they made a mistake, they made a misstep. They literally fall through this ecosystem, the plush will protect them from falling any further, and also they are protected just because they're made of plush. I wanted to think about our emotional states, visually, and then create an alternate universe, imagined to make that imagery.

Let’s talk more about fumblys. You describe them as “naked plush creatures” in “an imagined, soft alternate universe.” How were they born? Are they forms of self-portrait? In my own practice, I am on my journey of discovering and studying “bops,” which are jelly-like, translucent creatures that float around and adapt to their surroundings. I created them because I had to move around so much, being Korean, Canadian, American, and I had to constantly reinvent myself. I did that by creating the bops, which grow into the environment uniquely. Is each fumbly unique depending on the different scenery?

Yeah, I would consider them a reflection of myself, but also anyone who relates to feeling like they're too emotional. I think I don't necessarily take things personally, but I connect things to a lot of things emotionally. That's why, like, Apple commercials during the holidays, as much as I despise the commercial, I'm like, “Oh, that's nice.” So I definitely see them sort of being a reflection of myself navigating the world. I think it's really interesting what you said about how you have morphed because of your experiences into different shapes, in different environments. My characters, I don't necessarily place them beyond anything much further than the plushscapes, but the sense of travel and the lack of a physical home is very prevalent, just because I've been away from home, and I don't necessarily see home as, like, a architectural structure. It’s wherever I have ties with people, too.

They're individuals, but they're the same species. They come in different scales and sizes, because I still want to continue exploring that narrative of how scale determines relationships, too – the bigger ones are maybe able to hold more of the weight of the smaller ones, there may be like a motherly figure, this small ones tend to latch onto the larger ones to be held and or taken care of. And also the colors determine their temperature, so when they're alone, they're usually more of a cooler color, but when they're starting to come together, they increase the warmth of their bodies. I try to work with like singular fumblys in a picture and multiple figures within an environment interacting. So I think they sort of change. They don't look different, but their engagement with others does change based on the image that I make.

You briefly talked about classical figures. Do you reference any images when you make your drawings?

I look at a lot of religious imagery. I like El Greco’s work just because it's intertwined, and also kind of stiff at the same time. I also like illustrations, and illuminated manuscripts. I do try to think of how Western religions have this overarching power as to how cultures are dominated and overseen by their principles, which is this like spectrum of right and wrong and never thinking about the in-betweens. So, by looking at those Western religious imagery, I try to reinterpret it to break down that hierarchy, which I disagree with, because it never addresses what is in between without scaring the shit out of someone and telling you something is wrong, and how power plays into that. So they're not my favorite artists, but they're references that I look at just so that I can define them in my own work.

Do you have a favorite kind of cloud?

I like cumulus clouds just because they look the comfiest. Like, yesterday, when I went to grab some material from Joanne's, the mass of clouds looked so plushy. So yeah, I definitely reference my clouds from cumulus clouds.

Do you think the size of the paper that you work on affects your work?

Definitely. If I'm going large scale, I know I'm going large for a reason, whether to make the landscape or environment feel vaster, or I can play around with the scale of the creatures as well. The largest that I've gone is for my thesis work. I think the height of it was 120 inches; the width of it was like 160. It was vertical drawings that were connected together into a triptych, and I wanted people who entered the gallery to be part of the world, or they feel smaller than the fumblys. That’s the largest that I've done, and I would like to do it again soon. But I try to use scale. When you look at miniature houses, you feel like, “oh, like, so cute,” and I do tend to want that effect in my work when I’m working smaller scale. And when large, I want it to feel like you're more consumed in the environment, rather than being like a voyeur of the plushscapes.

I also saw that you were making works with fumblies wearing different kinds of outfits.

Oh, yeah. So I love Rei Kawakubo, the Japanese designer for Comme des Garcons. I’ve been reading about her work, and she is really interested in making, like, literal armor for bodies, and the way it changes the shape of the models, the human figures, I thought it was already interesting. Also, they use really colorful, playful patterns, as well. It does a lot of masking, where it transforms the person into just like this other creature, and I like the idea of like masking something and also protecting the body with that material. So, this is an ongoing project where I still need to go back, but I pick the outfits from her body of work, from different collections over the years, and dress fumblys in them, because I see them as like soft armors that don’t care about expectations of a female body. It's not about how to look pretty; it's more about experimenting and playing with clothing to transform yourself. She's one of my favorite artists, and a Japanese artist also, so it's been nice to kind of see where she's coming from culturally where I see the connection, but also how she's limited by the traditionalism of Japan, too. She's been really a great artist to read about, even though she doesn't talk about it often.

What is your favorite color? Does it find its way into your artworks?

I think I really separate like the colors that I like versus colors I like using in my drawing. Like, I love orange, but I tend to use pink, lavender, purple, and blue in a lot of my work, just because the temperature is kind of like a gradient and I do tend to use those colors all together. I think for drawing I do like pink a lot. Not in a kind of gendered way, but I just think it has a softness to it, and it also has warmth and a cool temperature. It has both at the same time, and I really enjoy seeing color as temperature. So I would say pink. I feel like yeah, pink would be the neutral color for fumblys. They look content. And I think when they start to turn blue, that's when they start feeling isolated and away from people. Like even if two fumblys that are blue are connected, they're not necessarily connecting emotionally. I find I tend to use blue to more reflect a lonelier state.

Is there a new medium that you would like to try or to work in more?

I have a lot of friends who make their own clothing and do a lot of textile work. I am interested in making my own merch, and like bringing some elements of fumblys into adornment, and that's why I started making some earrings where the fumblys are physically attached to the earrings. I want to bring in some of the pattern work that we're working on into textiles, make pants out of it. So I want to go into sewing and clothing making, and I think it's like the regret that I have of not learning the skills from my mom while I was growing up, because she was trying to teach me but she got impatient with me and I got impatient with her. So there's a really intense itchiness for me to learn sewing right now. My friend taught me how to do felting, so I've actually made a felt fumbly and it worked out pretty well, too.

Where are you located now? Do you think where you work influences your practice? 

I'm currently in Lexington, Kentucky, the horse capital, I think, of the world. I think because I've moved so much, and the idea of “home” is not necessarily like a physical place, and more where I feel comfortable, I think the word doesn't necessarily connect to where I'm at, wherever I've been. Because in grad school, I used a suitcase as an iconography, like this symbol that keeps traveling in my work. That was like a self-portrait of, “where do I find my home?” My parents also moved out of our childhood home, so I was having a difficult time with separation of what I had from my childhood and growing older. So, wherever I've been, I've always enjoyed where I am, but the location doesn't necessarily reflect so much in the work. It's more of my emotional state and what I'm going through. I think it's one of those things like the sky. The sky looks different in different places, but it also looks very, very familiar and similar. I think I look more for familiarity than what's different, every place I go.

How do you stay connected to your community?

I do art all the time, just because I teach, and make my own work, and my partner is an artist. I think being engaged with my students, and also, most of the friends that I've made here are also artists. I like looking at other people's work, I like talking about art, and so I have a well-built community, whether it’s distant or in proximity, wherever I go. It always helps to me try to think of things flexibly and also try to learn what other people's interests are, without necessarily being in my own tunnel vision, but being shown new things by my community.

What's your favorite tool?

I have two tools that I like. One, I do use my eraser a lot. Have you used the Muji eraser? That is the best eraser I have ever come across. Like when I go back home, I buy like 20 of them and give it to my friends too. Just because they use it so preciously, and I was like, you know, I can buy this online, so let me know if you need anything. It's really soft and bendy and flexible, and you know, you don't need that much like pressure so it doesn't ruin the paper as well. Yeah, my mom started using it for work, and then she shared a little bit of hers and I was like, this is the best eraser, and I have confirmed that with every artist that draws, so I think there's consensus. Also, this Stabilo swan sharpener has been the best for my colored pencils. It looks so deceivingly like it's a toy, but this has been the absolute best sharpener. Me and my partner, we both use colored pencils a lot, and this works for any sort of pencil. We bulk buy this in eights or tens when we start running low. We collected the shells of them and now we have empty swans. So we hope that we're going to just keep using these and they don't discontinue it, either.

What is the space where you do your work?

I have a studio slash office space at work, but I've been teaching online, so I've relocated all of my stuff and I’m working smaller this past year. So I actually work in my living room. I play music, I sometimes have background noise on like Bob's Burgers or something. I can't do this at school, but I can do this at home, so I feel a little bit more relaxed and focused while still having fun. I really just have a small desk setup where I work with watercolors, and I switch out my computer sometimes for work. I don’t necessarily have issues with separating my studio time with my life at home. Me and my partner are both artists, and we draw for fun too, so we have drawing games that we do sometimes. It's pretty seamless, but also it's been working out because I get to cook at home now and I have to go eat out while at work. So I've actually been enjoy making work from home this past year.

Do you have any ritual that helps you get into the zone?

I don't think I really have a ritual. I do get a solid seven hours of sleep, just because I think I've been more tired from screen time, too. Over the past year it has just been screen fatigue more than anything else. I always drink a cup of tea, like jasmine tea, I play with my cat a little bit and then just start drawing. But if I don't feel like drawing that day, I tend to usually read graphic novels. I really love reading comics, and looking at other people's work sort of helped me, like, I look at something exciting, I want to make something exciting for myself. So looking at other people's work is always like a really great way to feel really liberated to make my own work now. I have been starting to go to museums and galleries a little bit more, and having an art outing always really helps.

When do you know when you are finished with your artwork or a body of work?

I think visually, each piece of work, it just comes down to formal elements. Does this have enough contrast? Or, do I want to soften the image? I think because my work is pretty illustrative, and has visual clarity and different components, it's easier for me to sort of determine when I'm done done. But when it comes to body of work, I end up making smaller drawings in between what I thought was finished, and try to rework them as part of the series or just move on to a new body of work. So a body of work, I think, kind of lingers a little bit more if I feel like there is something that I haven't necessarily covered in that general broad idea that I was thinking about. I tend to maybe come back to it, but usually, if I feel done, I've already sort of moved on to a new body of work.

Who are your favorite practicing artists?

Yoskay Yamamoto, who is a Japanese-American artist working in LA, and his work is shown by the gallery Giant Robot. His work, I think, is really transportive. He imagines this entire world made of flora, invented architectures, sculptures, globes, and personifies them by applying emotion and faces to them. Seeing familiar things take on a life that's different from how they exist in the real world is something that I'm interested in. Also the cuteness that gets applied in them is a way for other people to get drawn into the work. His work I really enjoyed because he does paintings, installations, as well as, there's a rakugaki show at Giant Robot where artists just show preliminary work, or doodles and their notepads and their post-it notes and have an entire show that gets bought out every night. So he's very open to showing his process and also the development of his work in whatever medium and process that he works with. I find him really interesting to have this very clear path, but also very flexible to expanding his world in like different ways. He’s been an artist that I've been always interested in, but has been like a great reference for me to start thinking about my work in a different way too.

Another artist that, I just love their work is Nia Danielle Lovemore Rutledge, who had a show with at Parachute Factory, which is a gallery here in Lexington. Her work is also is very emotional, has these strong female figures that are sort of like bondage, but also has this spectrum of emotions that are lustful, but also yearning for desire. So it's a really interesting relationship of what people see in the figure, versus what the figure wants from the viewer, and just how the images are drawn is super lush, you can really feel the texture, whether it be in their flesh or the environment that's being depicted. I just love Nia’s work, and she’s a drawer and her technique is impeccable as well. I learned so much from just looking at her images. I'm just a really big fan, and she's an artist who I got to know, in Kansas City and Lawrence when I was there.

And then Katie Chung is a friend from my undergrad. Her work is installation, drawing, I met her specifically in printmaking. I thought her imagery was always super playful, but there was a more personal narrative that was portrayed in this sort of imagined way. It felt abstract, but also concrete at the same time, and also felt very personal. Her bookmaking and also sculptural installation work is evolved from the imagery. She works in so many different mediums and processes, showcases them in such different formats, and all of them have a very strong narrative quality to them. I've followed Katie on Instagram and have seen her works develop over time without being around her, like I was in the printmaking department, so it's been really cool to see and sometimes reconnect.

Yimiao Liu, I think a mutual artist posted an image on Instagram stories, and I just really loved the imagery – like familiar, sort of natural iconography and symbols, puzzle pieced together to make these otherworldly objects and creatures and landscapes. I really enjoy that. I believe they’re in Chicago, so I hope that I could see the work in person at some point.

What gives you the feeling of butterflies in your stomach?

I like traveling, and now that there are safer ways to travel, the prospect of vacation time to be able to go somewhere, hang out with friends. Also, just good food. I love eating. Every time I'm excited by my own home cooked dinner or eating out or getting takeout, honestly, that gives me butterflies. I just enjoy eating so much, and my partner enjoys it as equally and so that gives me you know, so much joy. If I was with someone who didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn't be with them in the first place, but food definitely ties both of us. So I would say food.

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