Using the hand-cut paper skill she has practiced for over two decades, Mayuko Fujino creates stencil illustrations, collage art, and surface pattern designs. Mayuko’s organic shapes, simple compositions, and use of calming colors are influenced by the artists from the Mingei Japanese folk art movement such as Keisuke Serizawa, and graphic designers from the early 20th century who fused traditional Japanese aesthetics and Western art influences such as Hisui Sugiura.
Mayuko is a birder and often finds inspiration in the natural landscapes and country life in the Hudson Valley, New York, where she lives. Her goal is to connect with nature lovers and support environmental conservation works through her art.
Approach
Mayuko’s illustrations are hand-crafted using stencils, sometimes as a complete composition and other times as individual elements that are put together digitally. The stencil paintings are then scanned, composed, and finalized in Photoshop. This process allows her to maintain the handcrafted aesthetic and flexibility of digital illustration.Style
The style imputed to her images very much comes down to the shapes and colors she uses. Nature – including plants, flowers, and birds – often comes to the fore, and with their organic curves, her images have a decorative feel. 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 color and contrast to control the overall atmosphere of the piece.