＜Artist statement＞
Concon Sakura picture book writer
The beginning of my story creation dates back to my childhood. While I had developmental disabilities, and I was good at drawing and mathematics, When I was a child who had difficulty reading books and learning Chinese characters.
At that time, the school put emphasis on reading and imposed more than 100 books per year. The students had to submit the report which they had read. It was a very difficult task for me.
0 or 100, white or black, I didn’t like the ambiguity.
So... I thought desperately.
" I can't read a book, so I make stories by myself and make new books !" I came up this idea!
There were many books in the school library, but I could read only one book.
It's a wonderful picture book like made for me.
It is a picture book without words. Yes, it is a book, but there are no words.
I opened a picture book, created a story, and I wrote the book title and impression report . I completed the picture book that I created my own story.
Finally, the date of submission of the report has come.
My teacher said, "Ms. Concon. You read only one book. You can read the same book only once! You have to read 100 different books."
I immediately responded, "It's one book , yes, but it is not the same. That has 100 different stories."
The teacher said, "For every story I feel the same impression in your report. "I was fun....I was fun....I was fun....". what is so different about that ?
It is just one book after all.
When I was little , my diary was only "I was fun.". I didn't know enough words for make to express my feelings.
I remember my surprise on listening to the teacher talked about book reports by classmates, how you can get a different impression depending on the books.
The teacher told me that the impressions can differ depending on the books. However, it was too difficult for me at that time to write a book report like that.
I kept silent....
The teacher said, "Hey, do not you try to deceive me!. You can't say anything for that , do you? You have to read 99 more books, and complete the report by submission deadline.
Although, I was extremely shy , but I had a strong will.
"It's a different story!"
Then the teacher said, "Then show me that the books are not the same."
So I showed off a number of stories made from a single picture book in front of my teacher.
The teacher was surprised to hear those original stories, and said: "It's really the same book, but it's not the same book. There is one book which has many stories about 100 different books. Then, the report is completed."
This is the start point of the picture book writer Concon.
I originally loved drawing so I did not only make stories from "picture books without words", but also began to draw and created stories .
I created original picture books. Afterwards.
In some cases, I showed and red my original picture book for little children after school.
Concon who spent such a childhood.
There were many things I couldn't do, and I had a lot of hard experiences, but I learned a lot things and grew up. However, as I grew up, I moved away from such creative activities.
Then time passed, I became an adult and had happy days with my lovely husband. At that time, we desire to look for a cat. We welcomed her as a family and named her Purin. Purin is a calico cat.
I wanted to share the cuteness of Purin with many people! I thought
"I want cat lover friends! So, I started Instagram”. On Instagram, I made many gentle and fun cat lover friends. I enjoy talking about cats and exchanging our feelings with them, and that is still continuing now.
One day, a friend who highly appreciate a value of my work. Some of my friends told me, "Purin's mom (concon) is suitable for a picture book writer! You have a talent! You need to try it!" "It's a nice picture. We want your drawing !" They pushed me to be it.
With the encouragement, supporting of my gentle husband and friends, I started to show my true creativity again
That creativity had been restrained as I’ grew up.
So I became an e-book picture book writer. I haven't published a paper book yet, but I'm continuing my creative work.
Representative works are "We are good friends", "White cat Haru", "The cat changed a squirrel fairy". (Published from Amazon kindle)
