7 THE ART OBSERVER August 2009 by the pinpoint of RGB colour sensor of human eyes which is also processed by the visual brain. The stress of the mecha- nism of our visual brain is based on the fact that our cognition mechanism is dominated (nearly 90 %) by the information through visual perception. I believe this line-dominant mechanism of our visual brain fashions and shapes the unique- ness of humanity on the sense of classification, categorization, on invention of painting preceding writing in the earliest prehistoric age in humanity. (Numerous groups of people didn’t, and still don’t have letters.) However, despite the emphasis of human visual brain function for art, I by no means mean to reduce my art practice to neuroscience. I’d rather define my creativity as focusing on painting and drawing to seek for human spirituality, particu- larly facing the new era of humanoid robotics and hyper biogenetics; which might hurl a fundamental question, “what is the dignity of life?” Thus, through my creative endeavours I’m exploring how to bridge East and West, as well as our artistic heritage and contempo- rary understanding. 8. What have you achieved with your work so far? I won the Peter-Tyson Painting Award for the Lake Artists Society summer exhibition in 2006, my work was selected for the Chichester Open in 2007, and was selected for the Lake Artists Society in 2008. 9. Your work appears to be very sensitive, how do you feel about art in general and your art in particular? So we’ve lived here for about 3 and a half years. 6. What inspires your work? What inspires me most is the moment seen in the dignity of life, in humanity and nature; beautiful and contemplative music; tranquil light, all experi- enced with a cosy cup of tea. What inspires my work - history, art history & theory, iconology, aesthetics, philoso- phy, theology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, semiotics, psychology, neuroscience, photography, film, contemplative music, etc... 7. Can you describe your technique? I use Japanese sumi ink and acrylic, the combination of Oriental traditional material and Western relatively new material invented in 20th century, I cre- ate images by first using a line hatching technique with Japanese sumi ink on canvas then laying transparent selective acrylics one by one so that I don’t loose the condition of pure colour. Technically, this method I created is inspired by d i s e g n o established in the Florentine school in the early Renaissance era, it is part of my challenge to add to the effort the Expressionists such as Monet and Seurat explored and accom- plished by enhancing the “neuro-aesthetic” theory by Dr. Semir Zeki, the professor of neurobiology in University College London. I have read this book only in Japanese so please forgive my interpretation in summarizing his theory. According to his study the human visual brain perceives objects by the combination of lines while colours are cognized For me, contemporary art seems too theoretical an approach for the ordinary viewer including me, though I have to say some of the arguments and debates on concepts are very intriguing and much appreciated. I’m attempting to create images from concrete concept, theory and technique which will be open to everyone and which the viewer may enjoy finding their own multi-strata meaning of my works. This is what I hope anyway. I want to let my works themselves speak their own narratives. 10.  Which artists do you most admire and why? I can’t choose just one or two so here are the artists I admire most: Albrecht Dürer, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, William Blake, Manet, Andy Warhol, Andrew Wyeth, Thohaku Hasegawa, Tadashi Kawamata, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier- Bresson, Yousuf Karsh, Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus, Sebastiao Salgado, Bruce Weber, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrei Tarkovsky I admire Dürer for his suprema- cy of eminence on line in his etchings; Caravaggio for his tenebrism as well as his achieve- ment breaking the ethical barrier between “sacred” and “mun- dane”, “natura vivante” and “natura morta”; Rembrandt for his most contemplative self-por- traits reflecting every moment of his life; Vermeer for the mys- terious narratives in his works using camera obscura; Blake for his unfathomable spirituality; Manet for his accomplishment in exposing the secret of “nudity” in sacred paintings past; Warhol for revealing the human mentali- ty in a media-dominant society; Wyeth for his amazing tempera technique in transforming “personal” to “universal”; Thohaku for his unattainable aesthetic composition particularly in his use of Japanese sumi ink, Kawamata for his great potential in conceptual dialogue of his installation works; Adams, Bresson, Karsh and all other photographers I listed above for their solid documentarism in capturing nature, humanity, epoch, personality; Kieslowski for his uncompromising effort in documentarism with his film narrative; and Tarkovsky for his highly religious, philo- sophical and aesthetic concepts over film entwining with immense nostalgic beauty in human experience. 11. How do you see your future? I don’t know at all. However, I’ll complete my life as an artist in accomplishing my visual anthol- ogy depicting my own epoch. Hideyuki Sobue will be having a solo show at Wendy J Levy Gallery, Didsbury, Manchester, from the 5th - 27th March 2010 My Wife, Sumi Ink & Acrylic My Wife (Detail) Sumi Ink & Acrylic