Light Under the Sea — Painting Freely With My Child

This was the first watercolor painting that Arata and I made together. His use of color was completely original — he didn’t hesitate at all when the colors turned thick or muddy brown. He kept moving his brush over the same spot again and again, letting the texture of the paper show through, without worrying about it in the slightest.

What surprised me most was that, after the paintings dried, he took the masking tape all by himself and stuck every sheet up on the window.

When the sunlight shone through from behind, the paintings suddenly came to life, radiating a strange and vivid world of their own. What I had pasted up without really thinking, and what Arata had painted with total abandon, didn’t turn into a mess at all — instead, they gave us a brand-new discovery, and I felt deeply grateful for that.

With the light pouring in from the back, it began to look like an underwater scene. I couldn’t tell whether the dots were rocks or fish, but there was a sense of something alive, quietly breathing in that world.