Mayuko Fujino is a stencil artist and birder from Japan based in Upstate New York. Mayuko's illustration expresses joy inspired by birds, nature spots, historic sites, and country life. Her goal is to connect with nature lovers and support environmental conservation works through her art. Inspired by traditional Japanese stencil textiles, she has been practicing art since 1999.
Her work is ideal in lifestyle and editorial projects, and features in advertising campaigns and on packaging, garments, and even carpet designs. Mayuko creates murals and installations as well. Influences include the Mingei Japanese folk art movement, Cape Dorset Inuit art, Tove Jansson, Zdeněk Miler, and the Beatles’ film Yellow Submarine.
Approach
Mayuko’s artwork employs a stencil technique influenced by Japanese traditional folk art. She pays close attention to her use of white space, which is the exercise of Ma 間, the Japanese concept of shaping a design with pauses and intervals, and she perfectly hones colour and contrast to control the overall atmosphere of the piece.
Mayuko pursues environmentally safe art practice. The calming colors of her paintings come from natural pigments, some of which she makes herself from invasive plants. She uses egg yolk and Arabic gum as a binder and biodegradable surfaces such as paper, wood panels, and wood scraps. It is a practice influenced by the outdoor ethics system Leave No Trace. Some of her artwork is made with recycled materials such as used magazine pages, littered plastic bags, and found objects.Style
The style imputed to her images very much comes down to the shapes and colours she uses. Nature – including plants, flowers, and birds – often comes to the fore, and with their organic curves, her images have a decorative feel. Using the same stencil technique, she also enjoys illustrating whimsical characters based on the animals she often encounters in the countryside, such as rabbits, mice, and woodchucks, and creates stories in imaginary worlds.