untitled (cat with two fish on a plate), Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani

Mirikitani’s inventive use of materials reflects both resourcefulness and resilience. Working with whatever was available, he combined his training in traditional brush and ink painting with improvised techniques such as drawing in ballpoint pen, colored pencil, crayon, and correction fluid. Unlike ink, the ballpoint pen’s waterresistant quality was crucial for Mirikitani, whose outdoor working conditions required durable materials that would not run when wet. He transformed everyday trash—plastic sheeting, foam board, wood scraps, or found cardboard— into surfaces of expression. Mirikitani also experimented with collage and photocopying, treating the copier as a form of printmaking. Through these improvisational methods, Mirikitani turned the waste of city life into enduring testaments of memory and creative survival.