For 32 Years, This Japanese Chef Has Been Making a Painting of Every Single Meal He Eats. See His Mouth-Watering Work Here

Long before there was Instagram cuisine, Itsuo Kobayashi was
taking the time to document each and every meal he ate—not with his
smartphone, but with pen and ink, filling notebook after notebook
with delicious-looking paintings.

The Japanese outsider artist and professional cook, born in
1962, first began keeping food diaries as a teenager. In his 20s,
he began adding illustrations of the dishes he made at work, and
those he ate while dining out.

His 32-year practice really kicked into high gear, however, when
his health took a turn for the worse. At the age of 46, Kobayashi
began suffering from alcoholic neuritis. The
debilitating neurological disorder made it difficult for him
to walk, leaving him largely confined to his home. In the years
since, Kobayashi’s art has become all the more important, with each
meal serving as a creative outlet for the homebound artist.

“After getting sick and having difficulty going out, he began to
draw lunch boxes,” N. Kushino, the artist’s dealer, told Artnet
News in an email. The dealer, who runs Kushino Terrace gallery in Fukuyama, Japan,
learned of Kobayashi in December 2014.

“I found a small painting of Kobayashi’s at an exhibition of the
art of the handicapped in Saitama Prefecture,” Kushino said. “When
I visited his home, there were thousands of artworks.”

These days, Kobayashi relies mostly on food
deliveries—sometimes from restaurants, sometimes from his mother.
And though his day-to-day existence rarely varies, he’s been
pushing his practice in a new direction, creating a new series of
pop-up paintings.

Kushino Terrace gave Kobayashi his US debut in January, at New
York’s Outsider Art Fair. His works sell for between $500 and
$3,000.

See more of the artist’s work below.

The post For 32 Years, This Japanese Chef Has Been Making a
Painting of Every Single Meal He Eats. See His Mouth-Watering Work
Here appeared first on artnet News.