The Yuko Shimizu Show

(6/10/22) This week on Remote Daily, we meet with renowned illustrator Yuko Shimizu, discussing her projects, process, and past leading up to who she is now. We also address a big question looming over budding creatives in this time of pandemic–when is it too late to follow your passion, if ever? Yuko questions the meaning of success, sourcing inspiration, and the difference between her fantasies and dreams.

Watch the full show here.

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ELEANOR DUBINSKY

This is Remote Daily. Welcome to Friday.

The world's only Zoom talk show. My name is Eleanor and this is Dario and we're joining you today from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. And with that, I have the honor and the privilege and the joy of passing the microphone over to our host, Felix Zeltner.

felix zeltner

Wow. A voice like the weather just to lay into it and enjoy. Thank you so much. Welcome to Remote Daily. Welcome from New York city to Memphis, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Shanghai, Alaska, North Dakota, Queens, Montreal. Thank you for making the time to be here on our agenda today in the world's first virtual talk show.

When is it too late to follow your passion? Ha. Just a tiny, big question we're discussing today. We have an amazing guest, and we say hi, hi to everyone who loves and digs our guest and is following her around. And we dive deep, uh, with her and together with you, your questions are always welcome through the chat.

And as always on Remote Daily, we also breathe. We dance, we chat with one another. We have music and mindfulness here for you in this hour, right after our intro and then sit down for the fireside with our guests before we end another mini concert with our house artist. We do this all for you and with you, so if you're here in the Zoom room, please comment, get your questions out there. Switch on the transcription if you like here in Zoom. And if you're joining us from the live stream, hello out there on LinkedIn and YouTube, we're happy to have you. 

Remote Daily was born out of the pandemic as a place to connect with one another in a very real way. It has since been adapted by leading organizations around the world from sectors of finance to publishing, to manufacturing. With our format, we really help people work better together. And if you wanna support us, you can become a Patron, or you can invite us to talk to your colleagues to maybe come in and do something like this for you.

Zoom does not suck. It is just us. We have to learn how to use this tool. And we have hacked it here at Remote Daily. Our guest today is a multi award winning, Japanese illustrator, who has been a New Yorker for at least two decades. She created DC comic covers, Sandman: The Dream Hunters, the unwritten Batman, just to name a few.

She also did this for Criterion Collection DVD jackets. So if you have the Godzilla box set at home, yes, that's her. And she did advertising for the likes of Apple, Nike, Pepsi, a Smithsonian Museum, uh, is in her works. The Library of Congress has her works. She's everywhere. And she was recently awarded the Caldecott Honor, one of the highest awards for picture books for her work on the children's book, the Catman of Aleppo, which was released in 2020.

And in her, I think, non-existant spare time, she teaches the next generation of artists, of illustrators, at the School of Visual Arts here in New York City. What an honor to have an illustrator, a superstar with us today, please. Please welcome Yuko Shimizu! Hi, Yuko. Great to have you with. 

YUKO SHIMIZU

Sorry, I'm so bad at unmuting. Thank you so much. And thank you, Eleanor and Dario, with the amazing music to start this talk. You really carefully chose the right music for this. So I was very [mic fizzes]

felix zeltner

Yuko, you are connected with us from where? Where are you right now? What do we see behind you, around you?

YUKO SHIMIZU

I'm at home, I'm at home. I usually work from the studio, oat least I did for, you know, close to like seventeen, eighteen years in the same studio in the Garment district in Manhattan. But I haven't been back. I was back this week, but it's a weird neighborhood because it's very office, and there was pretty much nobody yet.

So I went back for a day, you know, talked to a bubble tea place, I got a bubble tea right next to my studio and asked, you know, tea sellers, “How is it? Are people back?” And they're like, “No, nobody yet.” So, I was back for a day and back to my home with a bunch of [???] in the background.

felix zeltner

And Anne is just sharing with you in the chat, “I'm addicted to bubble tea. I just got addicted to bottle tea, ‘cause my daughter goes to daycare in Chinatown and she always wants an ice cream on the way home and I started buying a bubble tea alongside with it. It's not, I don't think it's very healthy to drink one every day, but I can't stop. I can't stop. It's uh, it's just addictive.”

And, so shout out to the Garment district, shout out to the bubble teas, and shout out to you, Yuko. We will dive into your work today, but everybody who has ever been to your website, I mean, it is just astounding. You are pouring out art and beauty everywhere you go. Can you just share with us? How was your day today? What did you create? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

Oh, my God, I haven’t created anything today! You know, like I–not to brag or anything, I was on TV like a month ago, little bit less than a month ago. And I was never on TV. I mean, like, you know, most of us are never on TV, right. It was great. And you know, like someone invited me for Asian American Pacific Islander month and wanted to do a mini-segment, which was great. And I thought that was that, oh, it's great. You know, so happy. And then people started ordering prints for my small print shop.

And I think I got a year’s worth of orders in four hours, but I was out of the country most of May. So I just came back last week, and I had my assistant coming every single day for the last,  week just packing, shipping, and we just finished everything yesterday. So I was like, I need to relax a bit. I honestly woke up this morning and thought it was Saturday.  

felix zeltner

Sorry! No, we are here every Friday. So you're here with us. This is proof that it's not Saturday yet, but I feel you. And actually Cessana just posted a chat, “I saw that segment. It was awesome.” So congratulations on your big, TV exposure and by the way, one sound note, just housekeeping I wanted to make. I think your, your, um, headset is occasionally colliding with the beautiful necklace that you're wearing. 

YUKO SHIMIZU

Oh. I’ll take it off. 

felix zeltner

Well, yeah, maybe that's maybe that's the best way to do it, even if it looked beautiful, but thank you. You have such great sound so the necklace was just giving us some salsa rhythms there in the background.

I appreciate you being here. And, uh, as Kara just posted a chat, London misses you. So many people are missing you. They're here all today. Shoutout to all of you. We do something special on Remote Daily. Every time we take a minute and I, this is especially for you Yuko. I said you had such a stressful week, to arrive, to breathe, to stretch, to meditate, just to arrive on this call. When have you ever been breathing with strangers on a Zoom call? This is your moment. 

We have an amazing mindfulness guide, facilitator, fitness and yoga teacher with us live here from New Jersey who is now giving you all a moment of Zen, please.

Welcome Jade Alexis.

JADE alexis

Hello, everyone. Lovely to see you all. Nice to meet you Yuko. All right, let's start this moment with a nice big stretch. Roll the shoulders forward and all the way back and around. Again, forward all the way back and around. Beautiful third time. Yeah. Now just take your left ear to your shoulder and roll your chin.

So the right ear lands on the opposite shoulder and come back around, close the eyes. Now, as you do this, as you rock the head from side to side, the eyes are closed and just feel the bod gently. Release any tension from the shoulders, the neck, and as you connect with your breath and the music in this moment, feel the tension releasing from your mind.

Find stillness, center yourself. Your eyes are closed. Allow your palms to rest face up on your thigh. Take a deep breath in three.

Exhale slowly out your mouth.

Do that twice more. Breathe in through the nose. Exhale slowly out your mouth.

Once more, really tune into the sensation and the sound of your. After that last exhale, seal your lips, allow your breath to now come and go through the nostrils, keeping your gaze at your third eye center, the spot right between the center of your eyebrows. Just connecting with your breath. Anytime we allow our minds to let go of all the thoughts and worries and stresses of the day, we connect with our breath, we connect inwards.

We find peace. And the idea is that we take this piece and we carry it throughout the rest of our day. Even a little bit of peace will go a long way. So as you connect with your breath in these moments, feel that peace that exists within your breath

Let's explore creativity. You have a wonderful, beautiful artist here with us. If you were an artist and when you were to draw a comic of yourself, if you were to become a superhero, what would you look like? In your mind space, maybe see yourself drawing your figure. What does your superhero look like?

How do you see yourself?

How do others see you? How do you want others to see you? You have a few more moments. Use the breath and the mind to construct your figure.

As you've completed this visualization, that's drawn in your mind space mentally. Repeat your name.

On your, on your inhale breath, mentally, repeat, “I am.”  On your exhale breath, repeat your name. Do that a few more times, saying it loud in the mind, proud and clear, strong, and determined to become your best self.

After your next exhale breath, bring the palms, touch and prayer at the heart center. We'll share one deep breath together. Deep breath in… exhale slowly.

Bow your head to the prayer in front of your heart. Namaste. You can open the eyes and smile. Thank you for your time and your energy and your creativity.

felix zeltner

And just like that, she froze. Thank you Jade, for being here with us. What a magic ending to this mindfulness moment. I hope you all feel a little bit different. A little lighter maybe. And if you would like more of this, we have Zen Daily for you every Wednesday. At one, we give you 15 moments live of Jade and Keris mindfulness, Wednesdays, Zen Daily, you can just sign up for free. The link is in the chat right now for you in a second and enjoy more of this Zoom meditation. We should do more of this. It's hard to do it in the middle of today, but I promise it's worth it. 

And just like that, I'm gonna raise my glass and whatever you have next to your screen, whether it's your little bubble tea, um, or your morning coffee over there in Alaska, or maybe your nightly drink in Shanghai, let's all cheer, welcome to Remote Daily. This is the remote daily house song for our amazing guest, Yuko Shimizu.

ELEANOR AND DARIO

This is Remote Daily, your daily dose of inspiration. This is Remote Daily an oasis of innovation for your mind, your soul and your heart connect, react and recharge with Remote Daily. This is Remote Daily.

felix zeltner

This is Remote Daily!  Thank you so much Eleanor and Dario, and welcome everyone to the world's first virtual talk show where we have no other as our guests today than the amazing Yuko Shimizu! Welcome back to the stage.

YUKO SHIMIZU

Thank you!

felix zeltner

So good to have you with us. Do you feel a little different after breathing for a moment after this crazy week that you have?

YUKO SHIMIZU

Oh, my God. Totally. I haven't drawn anything, but I did have a virtual workout session with my personal trainer. And I was telling him that my whole body feels tight after doing all this work. So it was actually perfect–you know, work out in the morning, little bit of breathing in and out and meditation in the afternoon.

felix zeltner

Fantastic. We have many people here in the room today who love you, who know your work. So if you found Remote Daily through Yuko’s channels through our Instagram, please just give us a heart. You can go to the Zoom reactions button down on your Zoom menu and just give us a heart, show your love for our guest.

And, um, it's great to see so many hearts come up now, here in the Zoom window, if you go to Gallery view, you'll see a lot of fans, sharing their hearts. Thank you all for joining us from all around the world. And please post your questions for Yuko in the chat. We are here for you and with you, and lots of hearts in the chat, lots of hearts on the screen.

Yuko, you have a massive community, a massive family, but our topic today is, when is it too late to start to follow your passion? And to understand why we chose this topic, Yuko, it's important to know that you wanted to be an artist when you were little, but you didn't go to art school until you were 34 years old.

So please take us on this journey and, and share with us what happens. In the meantime and all these years, what held you back from following your passion in the first place? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

Yes. So, when I was like, I don't know, three or four, when I was in kindergarten in Japan, um, we are talking about like early 1970s, late 1960s, Japan, right? So like, it might sound a little bit off, but bear with me. The kindergarten teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grow up. And most of my classmate girls said, “I want to be a pretty bride”. I know it's like, 21st century sense horrifying, but like, you know, that was how girls were told. And unfortunately in some sense, still is in Japan and many parts of the world. But I remember my earliest memory was that question and the answer and my answer was, “I want to be a painter.” And the answer in my mind that I didn’t say was, “Girls, bride is not an occupation.”

So I was a little weird, Japanese girl growing up. I don’t know–my mom was a stay home mom, so I don’t know where that came from. But yes, I did not pursue art, because I teach art school kids, and I think it's great when young students at eighteen, nineteen, twenty, know exactly what they want to do, because I did not. Everyone said, you know, there are people more talented than you, which is true–and which is still true–but it's not about talent, where it's about how much you want to do, how much effort you want to put in, so it's a wrong answer. 

But, you know, if you are young you're told “It's a phase, you know, like there are more talented people than you, don't be an artist and starve yourself. Get a job.” And so I went to a regular university and got a business degree, and went into corporate PR in Tokyo, and I ended up being there for 11 years, not that I loved it.

The work was interesting, but mainly I was young and I really didn't know what I wanted to do, or what I should or can commit to. So it's a commitment problem, I felt like, “Oh, yeah, there are people who are better than me. It's a phase, it will go away, they go away for a while.”

But then, when I hit around thirty and I felt like I'm not a little kid anymore, do I want to be in this corporate world, which I was not fitting in so much, and then that's when I really started to seriously think. And you know, it sounds like looking back it just happened automatically, but I spent a few years thinking what's really in for me, what I really wanted to do. At the end, the answer to myself was like, what is something I haven't done?

I will be migrating at the end of my life if I didn't try it out, even if I don't succeed. And that was art, you know, going back to the the kindergarten. I said I wanted to be a painter, and I always love to draw and paint, and I never pursued it. So I decided, “Okay, you know it's as easy as it is, we only live once, so why don't I try it out.” And then you know, I need money and planning to actually move to the US and go to art school. So, I started thinking around 30. By the time I started art school I was 34. By the time I graduated art school I was 38. That's when I started my career.

felix zeltner

Fantastic. And Gabby just shared in the chat, “Love your work and your courage.” Eleanor shared the story from her mom, who is now at almost eighty, hitting her most prolific point as an artist. You know, how about that? And Yuko? Thank you so much for sharing that. It is a story that took a lifetime for you, and you just put it in a few sentences here for all of us to process, and to digest. Not only that, you also brought a question to everyone in the room here at Remote Daily. We always ask our guests. What would you like to know from everyone who is joining us live today? So what did you bring for us, Yuko? What would you like to know? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

Yes, my question is, do you have a dream that you want to achieve? It can be big or small, that you think you will regret at the end of your life if you don't pursue it at one point.

felix zeltner

So I’m gonna repeat that again–do you have a dream big or small? I'm typing here while you speak–that you would like to achieve, and would regret if not having tried at the end of your life. Please let us know in the chat. This is the question to everyone here today. Just a small, tiny question for all of you here… and Dario is helping you think [with accompanying background acoustics].

And if Ivan just kicked us off, and said “You know what, yes, I'm exploring it right now. Kudos to you Ivan, I know you have the late bloomer podcast. So shout out to that. Ivan, you're creating a movement around this question. Susanna says “To be a freelance illustrator, but I'm still trying to figure out which sector, editorial or children's, and she'll set well i'm thinking about this.” And Jill said, “I’m thinking about this, and I also have a question.” We’ll come to the questions later, about the first gigs you had, Yuko. Cindy says, “Learning animation is a dream that I would like to pursue,” and Tom says, “Becoming a comic artist,” and Melissa is in this journey that you just shared right now. Left her job two months ago, trying to finally discover at age thirty-eight what she wants to do with her life. Scary but necessary. Exactly, that's what you just said, Yuko. 

If you look at these answers here in the chat, there's many more coming in. Thank you all so much for sharing. Yuko, when you scroll through this, so many of us in the pandemic are reshuffling, are asking ourselves what we really like to do. What stands out to you when you look into the chat?

YUKO SHIMIZU

People ask me how I was able to depart from a stable job to do something completely unstable and unclear of the future? And one of the biggest reasons was at the end I had two terribly mentally abusive bosses, and I tolerated working under them for maybe the last two years or so. I'm bringing this up because the pandemic is not something anyone wanted to have, and it's negative for most of us. It's like me having two mentally abusive bosses was not my planning and it had an absolutely negative effect on my life, and so sometimes we can make decisions we won’t make otherwise when we are facing negative situations. We're kind of forced to choose things that we don't necessarily have the courage to choose. The pandemic is absolutely terrible and it's still terrible. 

Also it's easier said than done! Turning the negative into positive. But if you can, and many people have, right, a lot of people departed their jobs to pursue new things, different things that they never thought they would have a chance to, and I think we're kind of given a chance by experiencing something so negative. Sometimes, when we hit something extremely negative, we see our life, we see our vision in our life more clearly than when things are working out, because when things are working out, why leave when I have nice bosses and steady paycheck, great benefits. That’s why I ended up being there for eleven years. So it is an interesting time in everyone's lives. We will find out a few years from now, right, because people are making a lot of changes in their lives.

felix zeltner

It's so great to see all the sharing in the chat, because a lot of you out there, and this Remote Daily is also an effect of this time–trying something new, doing something new, I think you saw here David sharing that he's currently drawing while listening to this, to the show, to this conversation. Kudos to you, for you know, for being creative, for being out there, for putting yourselves out there, because, as you said, Yuko, it is an incredibly vulnerable time, and it's not over yet. 

You are teaching young artists every day. You are now in the room full, filled with artists that adore you and follow you. You have said to us that you faced rejection when you first wanted to pursue your dream. But still, when you get older, you still have these voices in your head. You just said that there's a stable page act, this sort of “I have a job” identity. So what do you say to people, either young, your students or older midlife, who are starting out new, who constantly have this, like–“I need the money, and nobody needs me in that space, I'm too old”– What is your direct response to encourage someone to pursue something new?

YUKO SHIMIZU

When when I was in school, and I was mid-thirties to late thirties and my friends are like, you know, getting promoted, or like, having family, buying a house, and I'm like living with two roommates in a remote part of Brooklyn, commuting. And my lunch money was super limited and then, buying these, I don't know, bagels for lunch every single day.

We never get rid of this voice in our head that says, “Oh, this is not gonna last. This is not gonna work out.” But the bottom line is there are dreams, and there is fantasy. I have fantasies. Fantasy is something I don't need to materialize. It's fantasy, but dreams are like, I would love to do this. It's important to do it, because I think the worst regrets in our lives are not something we have done, but the things we have not done. 

So whenever I woke up in the middle of the night–I sometimes still do, but like, you know, when I was back in school like, oh my God, what am I doing? What's my future? But then, you know, calm down, Yuko! First of all I wanted to go to art school, I'm in art school. Second of all, I wanted to live in New York, I’m living in New York. So I'm living my dream. And third, if this thing doesn't work out it's not the only choice, right? I put 100% in at the art school point and not looking back, but if this thing doesn't work out, I have skills, I have experience. I can do other things. I think that applies to almost every one of us.

We have all tried things that we wanted to accomplish, put a lot of effort in that didn't work out. It doesn't have to be just your career, you know, like you are in love with someone and say “Oh, should I tell him? Should I not tell him you told him?” You told him and he said, “No, I have a girlfriend,” whatever. Humans are strong enough to be able to be wrong.

felix zeltner

We will take the second half of our conversation today to look into your actual work process, which is fascinating. We'll do that in a second. I just have one more question; you came from the corporate world, you have a business degree, and often art and commerce is something that people don't wanna mix, and don't want to talk about. 

But I think some artists are the best entrepreneurs ever because it's a constant struggle, and we have many here in the chat and say I would love to live off my art, I’ve been trying hard–you just talked about what it meant for you to live in one of the most expensive places on earth, to pursue your dream. So did you learn anything from your business degree, from living in and staying and working in the corporate world that helped you become what you need it to be as an artist and entrepreneur?

YUKO SHIMIZU

Yes, you know, the funny thing is when you go to art school, our education in general is changing, but art is sacred. We don't talk about muddy, we don't talk about business, but if you are in any creative field making income from it to pay your bills you are entrepreneurial and you are a small business, so you know, people think artists are drawing and painting every day all day in our studio, but in actuality we might only do it half a day. You know, half of the week. We are doing something else, you know, writing emails, negotiating fees, trying to make connections, chasing after the money you haven't gotten paid, and to do that, like any experience outside of art of art, find help. 

I often tell my students, if you end up getting a day job that you don't love, you know you don't have to keep doing it for a long time. But at least try and get something out of it, you know, learning experience.

felix zeltner

So, instead of being ashamed of, you know, waitressing or working at an office just to get by, it is an experience, and you can draw something from it that will help you with your artistic career. Thank you for all this encouragement Yuko. We are so happy to have you and lucky that you shared some work with us coming here. We're now going to look into your design process and the example that you brought is from one of my favorite comedians, Ali Wong, who you just collaborated with. So before I share my screen,  how did you end up working with this fantastic comedian? How did they approach you? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

So yeah, it's almost like a coincidence? So I know Phil Chan, a friend of mine, and he is an art director, and I met him working where he used to work, for a big ad agency, but we never worked together. We're mostly online social media friends. We talk to each other on Instagram. that kind of friend.

There are a lot of creative people you know who can be clients, but you end up never working with them, and that's fine, because I would love to have friends in many different fields. So Phil called me early this year, he’s like, “Do you know Ali Wong?” And like yeah, of course, I mean who doesn't. And he said, “She's a good friend of mine and her new Netflix show is coming up, and she wants to make merch, and she wants her to be kind of a superhero-ish look and then put it on T-shirts and sweatshirts. I thought you were perfect, so do you want to do this?” And that's how it came about 

felix zeltner

Fantastic. So you shared with us. some drafts that you created, and I’m gonna share my screen now, and then you're gonna take us into the fine print and the final result. So here we go. This is just for everyone who is here with us right now.

This is the inside of your mind, and what came out when you first started this project. So please take us through your initial ideas of what you created for Ali.

YUKO SHIMIZU

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A rough sketch of three different designs of Ali Wong’s superhero-sona, all in different conceptual outfits and dynamic poses. Fire cloaks each of their fists.]

So I looked at a lot of old superhero comic covers, mostly Wonder Woman, very old ones, like 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, to get a traditional superhero look because she is a little ball of fire, so that's what I wanted to do. And then Ali and Phil wanted–there were three specials that she's done, and three different outfits, and the look and hair style, so you can bring all these three into the mix. I initially did two sketches, but at the end we moved around elements so it's like a mix of two separate sketches mixed together–I don’t know which you put in the slideshow.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A sketch similar to the first, with different composition and posing.]

There are ??? of different ones and they were different variations ,and like, wait wait wait, what’s different? But they were just putting together different elements into one. 

felix zeltner

So the elements we can see there is fire, there's her being pregnant on stage, which was huge, and I think a first for a comedian doing a Netflix special. It’s also the superpower references that you just talked about that are so visible in the composition of the imagery. Now we are getting through your ideas to the final one. I think this was it correct? 

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A sketch utilizing aspects of the previous two together.]

YUKO SHIMIZU

Yes, this is the final one. 

felix zeltner

And what happened between this and this?

[IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS: Felix quickly flips between two images; one, a photo of Yuko working on the final inkwork. The second is the final sketch just shown.]

YUKO SHIMIZU

Oh, so when the sketch gets approval? Well, it's already on my computer because I already–the initial sketch is in pencils and color pencils. But I have to scan it in to send it to the client, and also, you know, when I manipulated the Photoshop files. So what I do is put that file and decide how big I want to draw. It is usually decided by how big it will get printed, which is the t-shirt, so like, you know this size-ish, and also how big the face is, because faces–especially likeness–faces are very important, so I have to get enough face space to get all the details in. So I think the main face was this big, and then I print out the original sketch to the size I want to draw, and then cut the paper and put the printed out sketch underneath the nice paper that I'm actually going to be drawing, and use the light box to kind of trace it.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Another photo of Yuko inking, showing progress on the second pose.]

So the composition is there and then I will start inking, using a brush in black ink on the watercolor paper.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A closeup of the brush and ink details.]

felix zeltner

Fantastic, and we can see here, it is almost a meditative work, right? You have to be very focused, very still, ‘cause this is what ends up on probably hundreds of thousands of T-shirts. This is the actual material. This is the actual ink. There’s a lot of admiration here coming through in the chat for your work here. 

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A finished photo of the inks. A pile of eraser shavings is in the bottom corner.]

And what I was fascinated by was a little detail, and I think it's coming up now after we see here the final fine draw version, I'm butchering the correct terms I'm sure, which is the shoe. 

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A closeup on one of the shoes, a checkered Vans sneaker.]

You change the shoes–here, it's all high heels, and then we're looking at I think just Vans. What happened here?

YUKO SHIMIZU

So initially I would send the proto-photo, like the poster photo, and she was wearing high heels. And then, you know, it's a pretty long process and this is a relatively simple drawing. But it's a pretty long process, so I was listening to her audio book–which is great, you know, if you ever want to read the book, do the audiobook because she reads it really funny, and we really touching, and, you know, like talks a lot about interesting things that you want to know as a creative person, but another person in general. 

But she talks about, you know, like, “When I do stand up, I have to be comfortable, so I always wear flats”, and I was, like, you know, drawing these high heels and then, like, huh! She says flats. But whatever you know, it was on the photo. And then, of course, at the end, I showed photo, and then, Phil’s like, “Oh, yeah, sorry, yes, like can we change it to the shoes she actually wore during the stand up, and not the shoes for the photo shoot. So I drew these Vans separately later on and put together on Photoshop. So computer media helps, and that's the final version. and this is it.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The final, colored version with the Vans and flame effects on the hands.]

felix zeltner

And this is it! Congratulations. There's so much energy in this picture and if you haven't seen or heard Ali Wong, I can only tell you from a consumer from far away, just knowing her from her specials, this is exactly what she represents to me. And thank you so much for sharing this with us. We have of course, the T-shirt is everywhere out there on Ali Wong’s website. This made it into the world as you see it and it's just another example of your amazing work. A lot of appreciation here, coming in through the chat.

And Yuko, when someone looks at your website, and then your Instagram, which hundreds of thousands of people do every day, you will absolutely have a signature style. You have something that you look at and people will say, “That's a Yuko”. How did you develop this? What is the sauce that you made? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

That's a very good question, you know, because I teach, so everyone who wants to be professional artists, they're looking for styles, right? Like you know, what is my style? How can I find my style? And I was the same when I was starting art school. But when I was starting art school there were a few things I really hated about my art, which is, I grew up in Japan watching animation and reading manga and that's how I started drawing. And I actually haven't read any manga or watched animation for a long time, so my last comic and anime was probably wearing Akira came out. Which, I'm sorry I'm old, but, like you know, that's in the eighties. 

But it never went away because you know that was how I started drawing, and everyone who looks at my work, especially when I was back in Japan, and I wanted to go to art school and like, “Oh, you say you want to go to art school and be an illustrator. But all I see is manga from your pictures”,  and I hated hearing that, because–that implies is that they don't take me seriously because I draw like manga, but also they don't take me seriously, because I draw like manga but I don't make manga, you know, I'm not a storyteller in that sense, I can't come out with multiple page stories using my images.

So I felt like I was kind of a loser. So when I came to us in art school, I wanted to learn how to draw and paint like Americans–and it's funny looking back saying it now. But I was dead serious, and during four years in art school, what I realized is in art school–sure, you learn how to draw and paint, and teachers are there to help you. 

But what they all helped me with was that I draw the way I draw because it's me, and being influenced by manga and anime, and that comes out regardless of what is also me. And there's nothing wrong with that and to embrace it. So when we talk about style, we often talk about–it's something floating outside you and to grab it, but it's not. It's actually inside you, and you have to find it. I think 4 years of art school felt kind of philosophical. I don't know, like, therapy sessions for 4 years to find out and be comfortable with things I can't change because I am who I am.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A slideshow of Yuko’s work on her website, showcasing her personal style influenced by Japanese media and cultivated into her own unique voice.]

felix zeltner

Fantastic. I mean, mic drop. And everybody can see your style right now while flipping through your website which is a treasure trove by itself, I could spend hours just on your website flipping through. We also just saw the commission of our mutual friend who brought us together, Yana Maya Roberts, who just assigned you over from Europe. So you're getting–your work is sought after from all the other world by this point. What does success mean to you Yuko? Do you have a definition for that now that you are, by any measures from the outside world, successful? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

I don't know. I don't like the word success, you know, it's kind of simplified. If I am–I don't know, I feel it's a little bit arrogant. I'm very fortunate, I do what I love to do, which is create artwork, and get paid, and pay my bills and feed my dog with it. But I don't know, success is something, like, I don't feel successful. I don't know, success is what someone tells you or someone defines you, but could not be something I define by myself.

I don't know if that makes sense. If making a living, doing what I love to do, is the definition of success, I feel it's successful. But there I don't really like the word successful, I don't really like the word fans. I don't think there are fans in illustration. There are artists who like your work, or students who want to pursue the same career I'm pursuing, and those people might be nice enough to follow me or like my work. But I don't call them fans. Fans and success, two words that I feel very uncomfortable with.

felix zeltner

Fantastic, and this room is just speaking by itself, and just put it in the chat so much love in the zoom room for you, so much support from all the people that want to be with you, that appreciate what you do, and what is that, other than aside from what you're doing, is the right thing? And you're inspiring so many others including us today. 

Thank you, Yuko. Let's geek out for a moment in the end, you just shared that manga have been a huge inspiration from you from very, very early on. Where do you go today to find inspiration? Do you have newsletters, apps, podcasts, certain artists that you follow? Please help us a little bit to go with you and where you land every day when you look for inspiration. 

YUKO SHIMIZU

So it might be a little odd, but I feel like at this point in my career, I love other illustrators work so visual art in general. But I can't look too much at other artists' work because I'm a working artist myself, and I don't want to be influenced by what other people do. So although I looked at them my inspiration comes from mostly reading books when I have free time. I love to read books. I love to read more books, I just started an audiobook because of the Ali Wong project. I didn't do it before, and so now, I can draw and listen to books in the perfect world.

Traveling, because everything is stimulus right? Everything's new and fresh and something you have no experience but of course you need time and money to travel. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to travel. If not, and most of the time I'm not, I'm stuck at home, you know, working on my drawing, you know, chasing after the invoices people haven't paid me, and the best thing I can do are the books because they take me to a world I can't go otherwise. 

Also, books are visual only in your head, which makes it, I think, a very good workout for my brain, because we have to put images out. But I think I'm in the point of my career where images and inspiration should not be visual but visual in my head, so that flexes my brain and work out and get the creative muscles built in my brain so I can put more things out. So that's how I feel. I really love to read books by authors all about the topics that takes place in places I have never been, which is really cool. 

I feel fortunate that I can read in English, because when I was in Japan, there’s Japanese translations of books. Yeah, there are a lot, but there is limitations. But reading in English, basically you can read any books from any part of the world, and there is someone translating them. It's really fascinating. So that's how I get my inspirations.

felix zeltner

So much to unpack here. So, I love this so much. First of all you say, if you follow your passion, if it happens to be an art, and you're expressing yourself through art, forget looking at other people and flicking through your Instagram all day especially when you're a visual artist, because, as Lee put it in the chat just a few minutes ago, you have already a lot to do. There's the marketing, the emails, the clerical, the pushing, the writing, the negotiating, the hustling. And then you have to create, and instead, there's this beautiful image that you just painted of yourself just sitting there with a book, or having just your earbuds, and just scribbling something and not looking at what other people do, but letting your brain, as you said, work out. Letting your brain work out and create images in there that you then can put on paper. Maybe later, maybe out of the moment. That is how you find inspiration.

And I just wanted to paraphrase that because I found it so amazing. We have had many musicians here on Remote Daily, and some of them say, “You know what? Yes, I can do this interview, but actually I speak through my instrument. So don't ask me what I'm doing, maybe you can ask me why I'm doing it–but don't ask me for a genre or a classification. I don't know–just listen.” I feel like if people wanna know you, just watch, right? Just watch your work and and and take it in. That's the expression, as you just said, that's what you put out there after having processed so much. Do you want to share what's on your nightstand right now though? Is there any book that you're reading right now that you want to share with the world? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

I am reading Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner. So I just came back from Spain. I took a 4 day workshop in Seville, and there was a soccer match going on, so I was supposed to take the train from Atocha Station in Madrid to Seville but I couldn't go because no hotels were available. So I said, look–why don't I get a room in front of the train station and stay there and relax one night and then take the train the following day.

So that's what I did, so I thought it is like a right book to read, and although I just said I read books about places I haven't been, but it is an interesting book in a way that, you know. I always wonder about how would it be living in Europe? It's not my dream yet but I contemplate a lot. Because I lived in Japan, I don't feel like moving back there. I don't know if I wanna live in New York forever though I love it. This book is about an American poet getting a grant and living in Madrid for, I think, a year, and then what he experiences. So to read about someone who's actually a foreigner living in Madrid is a very interesting book to read. So I'm almost done with it, that's what I'm meeting right now. 

felix zeltner

Fantastic. I would like to close with one question from the chat from Adam. “Yuko, Do you find that your location has helped you?” So this ties right into what we just heard. What does New York mean as a place to you?

YUKO SHIMIZU

So, New York. I felt because I grew up a little bit in the suburbs of New York, and then I went back–you know, it was only four years when I was in middle school–and I went back, and I felt Japan was not really a place for me anymore, because it is really difficult to look like a Japanese person but don't act like a Japanese person. And so for me New York feels like home because you can be, you know, Felix, you’re from Germany, right, I'm from–you know like everyone's from everywhere else. We got this so from abroad, or you know, outside of the state or the city, and you can dress up or talk funny, or you name it–you’re accepted. And there are not many places like that and that's why I love being here.

When I moved to New York more than twenty years ago, it was important for a creative person to be located in New York because all your potential clients are here. But with the Internet being how it is in 21st century, I don't think he need to live here in order to have a successful career in the creative field. You can live anywhere, you just sometimes visit and say hi to your clients, and you know, yeah, but otherwise you don't. I just still live here because it feels home, but also fantasize, not dream yet, about maybe living in Madrid, because I feel I love it there.

felix zeltner

Then talking about what's next for you might be to meet you at Atocha Station. I just had interviewed an investor in art, who said–who was also between Germany and New York–and he said the art is made in Berlin now, in his world, but it's sold in New York. So he needs to be in two places, and the financial policy has really changed through the pandemic, but it's still very much here, you are still very much here! We are lucky to have you in New York and whoever is with us in the Zoom room right now, we are so lucky to have you and have spent this hour with you. I can't believe we're already on the full hour. 

So I'm going just a little bit over time and invite you if it's comfortable for you to switch your camera on right now. What we do here on Remote Daily, what we call the virtual glitter is you switch over to the speaker view on the top right of your zoom windows, switch on your camera, you stretch out your hands which feels good. anyway, when you're sitting all day, and you just let it drizzle for our amazing guest–Yuko Shimizu. 

Thank you so much for being on Remote Daily. This is love for you from all your supporters all around the world. Thank you so much for taking the time, Yuko. And the last question is always, how can we, as a community, support you? What can we do for you? 

YUKO SHIMIZU

You don't–you don't have to do anything for me. You know, like, be good to yourself, and you know be creative and have a happy life. That makes me happy.

felix zeltner

You're the best. Thank you so much Yuko, the final song is coming up for you, and for everybody who was joining us today, it was lovely to see such a beautiful crowd. Thank you for taking the time to be a part of Remote Daily. 

Next week, here in this very room with us, is Daniel Sieberg, the co-founder of Good Trust and co-author of digital legacy, take control of your online afterlife. Yes, that's right, it's a weird, uncomfortable, awkward topic. But we will talk about what happens to your digital life when you're not here anymore. Join us next week. 

Thank you to everyone who is here today, and sharing so much love through the chat for you, Yuko. It was an honor to spend this out with you. This is for you, Yuko Shimizu, and for everybody to take the time today. This is from Eleanor and Dario, live from Cape Cod. This is the final song.

[Outro song]