Maki Ohkojima (Painter and artist)
大小島 真木（画家、アーティスト）
シンプルでカスタムできるようなスケジュール帳を探している時、なんとも言えない温かさや懐の深さを感じる佇まいに一目惚れをして手に取りました。
私にとってスケジュール帳とは常に持ち歩いて、日々のことを記録していく「記憶ノート」と呼べるような存在。傷がたくさん付いた革カバーと、何冊も積み重なったリフィルを見ると、本当に様々なところへトラベラーズノートを持って出かけてきたんだなと思います。
私は壁画も描く絵描きなので、絵の具と筆を持って旅をして、何日も滞在しながら作品を仕上げることがよくあります。私の「記憶ノート」であるトラベラーズノートには、そんな旅先での出来事も書き込まれています。
どんなところに行ったのか、どんな絵を描いていたのか、どんな人と出会ったのか、どんなものを見たのか……。ページを見返すと、その時に制作していた絵のドローイングが描かれていたり、どれくらいで仕上げたのかの日数まで書き込まれていたりして、ノートを見るだけでたくさんの記憶が蘇ってきます。
普段は引き出しの奥底にしまってあるような記憶も、ノートのページをめくることによって蘇ってくる。私にとって、トラベラーズノートは記憶の引き出しを開ける鍵なのです。
例えば、壁画を描くためにインドのワルリー村に行った時のページには、村に伝わるお米を使って描かれた絵とその絵が意味する物語に感銘し、思わず真似して描いたスケッチが残っています。（Figure 1）
今年の春には幸運にもフランスの科学探査船に同乗するアーティストに選ばれ、タラ号というスクーナー船で珊瑚礁の調査に同行してきました。そこで科学者や船乗りの人たちと話したことや体験したことをもとに、絵を描き、物語として綴りました。そんな時の大事なメモやアイデアも、トラベラーズノートのリフィルに書き留めていました。その中には、友人になった科学者の何人かが、私の見ていない隙に私への手紙をそこに書きこんでくれたりしていて、このノートは今では大切な宝物です。（Figure 2）
それぞれのノートには、それまでの時間の断片が集合し、共生しているようで、時折見返しては記憶を引き出して楽しんでいます。
I first encountered TRAVELER’S notebook when I was in university. When I was looking for a simple appointment book that I could customize, I fell in love with the appearance of TRAVELER’S notebook – the indescribable warmth and great capacity I felt it had – as soon as I set eyes on it and picked it up. To me, an appointment book is something you always carry around with you, somewhere you record things that happen every day, something you can call a “memory notebook.” Seeing the leather cover, with its many scratches, and the many refills I have accumulated, I feel that my TRAVELER’S notebook really has been with me to many different places. As a painter who creates murals, among other works, I travel with my paints and brushes, and often stay for several days while creating a work. I jot down events that occur on my travels in my TRAVELER’S notebook – my “memory notebook.”
What kind of places have I been to? What kind of pictures have I painted? What kind of people have I met? What kind of things have I seen…? Looking back over the pages, I see drawings of the pictures I created back then, with notes that even tell me how many days it took to complete them. Looking at my notebook brings back many memories. Even the memories that are normally kept in the depths of a drawer come back when I look over the pages of the notebook. To me, TRAVELER’S notebook is the key to opening the drawer of memories. For example, there is a sketch on the page from the time I went to Warli Village in India to paint a mural. A picture made with rice handed down in the village, and the story of what that picture represents made an impression on me, and I subconsciously imitated it in the sketch. (Figure 1)
n the spring of this year I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the artist in residence on a French scientific research boat, and I accompanied a coral reef survey on a schooner named Tara. Based on the conversations and experiences I shared with the scientists and sailors onboard, I drew pictures and patched them together to create a narrative. I jotted down important memos and ideas in a “TRAVELER’S notebook” refill, too. Amongst these, there are also letters from some of the scientists who became my friends; they were written in my notebook when I wasn’t looking. Now, that notebook is my important treasure. (Figure 2) In each of my notebooks, fragments of my time up until now are gathered together and coexist, and I sometimes enjoy looking back over them and pulling out the memories.
The work (Figure 3) was created for this edition of the TRAVELER’S TIMES, but I created it by connecting parts of pictures I have previously drawn in various places. The picture of the whale is “Cetus,” which I drew as one of 88 constellations for Tamarokuto Science Center. The central illustration of the celestial sphere is one part of a mural I drew for the Earth Art Project at a primary school for the nomadic people of Ladakh, 5,000 meters about sea level. The snake covered with words, and the surrounding feathers and minerals were parts of a personal exhibition in 2015 entitled “Birds, sing the songs of the earth through my bones. “It really is a work that I’ve created as a traveler.