Yayoi Kusama - The 'Princess of Polka Dots'

Bright, bold and wonderfully weird; the 90 year old Japanese contemporary artist who's work gives us psychedelia and more than just a pop of colour.

Yayoi Kusama, born 1929 in Matsumoto, Nagano, dreamed of becoming an artist since the age of 10. Her parents denied her of pursuing this dream, her mother tore up canvases and drawings in which she had created and her father disproved of her career choices and wished she would marry into a rich family, like her sister, and become a housewife. Living in post-war Japan must have been traumatic for her as well as experiencing obsessive-compulsive behaviours and hallucinations since a very young age. This did not deter her however, if anything it made her into the successful artists that she is known as today. Yayoi moved to New York in the late 1950s where it would be easier for her to achieve her dream albeit being predominantly a 'man's world'. she wanted to conquer New York and oh, she did more than just that... she inspired famous artists such as Andy Warhol and Donald Judd in the process. (sorry for the cliche but) #GIRLPOWER

"Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots we become part of the unity of our environment."

Yayoi Kusama

Some of her early work, whilst in New York, was something she called 'infinity net' paintings. These paintings would consist of her using large canvases and she would paint repeated marks that covered the whole canvas and sometimes she would obsessively carrying on painting after the canvas was covered onto her surroundings, creating a trance-inducing piece of art. Yayoi has described these paintings as "without beginning, end or centre" and that they re-create visualisations of the hallucinations she had in her childhood. I don't think the word 'trippy' covers it, right?

Yayoi Kusama's work really is as unique as she is. Her use of colour, materials and space takes you to another world, her environmental pieces of art 'infinity mirror rooms', her first room being created in 1965, are a great example of this. The illusion of dots and lights touching every inch of a room including yourself making her art seem as though it's 'real life'. Her work is extremely popular, you may have seen selfies of people in these rooms on social media, such as Instagram,Her inspiration from her hallucinations she experienced since being a child really gives us an insight to her mind and her creative energy. Yayoi Kusama is a gem, she is an extremely inspirational figure in my life and I hope her art gives you a feeling of self-awareness like it did me.