Kazuhiro Tsuji says after 25 years as a special effects makeup artist in Hollywood, the world of fine art sculpture changed his life.
“Creating large size portraits changed my life a lot. I realized that there is a way to live by just doing what I love to do as long as I put everything into it. Growing up in Japan, it was not considered possible to make a life for yourself as an artist.”
Tsuji says he uses resin, platinum and silicone as well as other materials to construct three-dimensional portraits of people such as Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali.
“When I pick a subject what inspires me is not about what a person has done, it’s about who they are,” says Tsuji. “I believe that life lives in the details and it’s in those details that I try to understand about the person and what makes this person who they are.”
Tsuji says he is a hyperrealist sculptor, a craft that requires discipline and study. Tsuji says he is drawn to nature, animals and the human form because they are perfect all on their own.
Sculptures by Kazuhiro Tsuji
“It’s impossible to create something better than nature can. So, I’m more like an interpreter or translator of what already is,” Tsuji says.”
Tsuji says he will continue to produce large-scale portrait sculpture in his studio in Los Angeles. So what's his next portrait, Tsuji says he won’t tell but, he says that his work in special effects for film informs the work he is doing now.
