Author Deep Dive Column | Kayo Aoyama. The Moment When Pictures Become Patterns

Kayo Aoyama apparently loved drawing ever since she was a child, often doodling in her notebooks during class. She majored in Swedish at Osaka University of Foreign Studies and, during her enrollment, spent a year studying art at a national folk high school in Sweden. She was thrilled by the creative environment she saw during her study abroad — large weaving looms, silk-screen printing studios, woodworking and pottery workshops, and classrooms where one could create freely day and night. After graduating, she returned to Sweden and enrolled in the Department of Design at the University of Gothenburg.

In her second year at the university, Aoyama learned how to create "all-over patterns" for the first time in a textile class. By cutting paper into a cross and rearranging the pieces, a single drawing transformed into a repeating pattern. This discovery of the mechanism seemed to be a significant revelation.

Around that time, she was also grappling with the question of "how can I make a living by drawing?" In that context, the realization that "by creating patterns, my drawings can become designs" remains a vivid memory for her.

The following year, she was deeply inspired by an exhibition of minä perhonen at a textile museum in the Netherlands, and at the same time, she interned at Sandberg tapeter, a Swedish wallpaper manufacturer. In Sweden, where long, cold, and dark winters are common, there is a culture of making homes cozy, and wallpapers with botanical motifs are popular in many households. Aoyama says that observing designers' hand-drawing processes and artisans' techniques up close was a great learning experience for her.

After returning to Japan, she worked as an assistant at minä perhonen for about three years. Although wallpaper and clothing are different fields, the way hand-drawn patterns captivate and soothe people's hearts is the same. This feeling led her to want to create her own designs, and thus began her freelance career.

Since then, Aoyama has continued to create, focusing on "repeatable all-over patterns." She has produced around 120 designs to date.

The composition of patterns, the mechanism of repetition, the choice of art materials, and the discovery of motifs. Her desire to experiment is still endless.

"Whenever a pattern is completed, I always look at it with a fresh feeling of 'I made something like this!', and that's what I enjoy."

While drawing, she doesn't always have a clear vision of the overall pattern when it's repeated. As a single design repeats and expands, unexpected expressions emerge. This unpredictable excitement is what supports her creative process.

What Aoyama consistently values are the subtle shifts in hand-drawn lines, the bleeding of paints, and unintended unevenness in color application. These are not left as imperfections but instead imbue the work with a natural breath. Aoyama describes this fluctuation as "feeling like an expression of being a part of nature."

The same attitude is evident in her pottery, which she started about three years ago. Clay, glazes, and firing results are not always controllable as one wishes. "Not trying to control the outcome too much"—this is a crucial sensibility common to both pattern making and pottery.

In recent years, Aoyama often depicts motifs found in daily life, such as flowers and plants, living creatures, fruits, and vegetables. Weeds on the roadside, flowers blooming in the garden, the vibrant colors of ingredients in hand. These small encounters in everyday life become the starting point for her works.

She is drawn to organic motifs because she feels they "can resonate with people's emotions." Just as decorating a room with plants brings color to life, she wants her own works to gently accompany someone's daily life. Since each plant has its season, she hopes to create works that can be displayed to match the season in the future, Aoyama says.

Rather than making a strong statement, her works are meant to quietly accumulate time within daily life. Kayo Aoyama's works, which convey her affection for the motifs she draws, possess such charm. The feeling that one can sense the presence of the artist within the painting—that is a unique characteristic of Aoyama's work.