"I've been drawing naturally since I can remember, especially because my mother read a lot of picture books when I was little. For example, I loved Shaun Tan's picture book "Rules of Summer". It is a picture book depicting summer vacation from a child's point of view, and not only is the content interesting, but the illustrations drawn with oil pastels and oil paints are beautiful, and I was inspired to draw a picture like this myself. My creation began when I took copy paper from the printer at home and drew lines on imaginary creatures."  
　
—So you have continued your passion for drawing since then, and now you are attending an art school in the United States. 
　
"I had a strong desire to continue drawing, to study and expand my knowledge, so I decided to go to the field of art from junior high school. Due to my parents' work, I moved to the United States shortly after I was born, and lived in Japan from 2019 to 2023, but now I am back in the United States, so I am attending this comprehensive art junior and senior high school (Faculty of Visual Arts)."  
　
—So you started attending art school and gained experience exhibiting your work? 
　
"Actually, my first solo exhibition was during the Alchemist Program, which I was enrolled in when I was living in Japan. The Alchemist Program is an educational program organized by Panasonic's creative museum AkeruE to foster a spirit of inquiry through manufacturing. I exhibited multiple works, including works depicting reptiles and animals that I like, and many people appreciated and purchased them.  
　
The art school I currently attend also regularly holds events to present my work. For example, there was an on-campus auction event, and the other day I also exhibited it and won the bid. I plan to exhibit my own booth at a market event this winter.  
　
At exhibitions, I feel the joy of gaining new insights and broadening my horizons by receiving impressions of my works from people around me that I have never thought of. I think that if you accumulate such experiences both inside and outside the university, you will be able to learn what kind of paintings people want."

 
　
"Yes, I like to draw nature and animals, and I spent three months working on a work called 'Curiosity' depicting a tiger, and I personally like it very much. It is a picture of a tiger trying to lick a mysterious object that he happens to find in the forest with his tongue out of curiosity. The tiger's tongue is spiky, so I drew the thorns like a pointillism. The forest in the background is also drawn using layers of different colors.  
　
It loves not only mammals but also reptiles, especially lizards, and often uses them as motifs. When I visited a reptile café, I asked the clerk to draw the iguana while observing it. On the other hand, I also like to create and draw fantasy creatures."  
　
—I could clearly see that Ryu himself has a strong curiosity about art materials, animals, and various curiosities. Finally, please tell us about your future prospects. 
　
"I haven't completely decided on my style or what I want to draw yet, so my immediate goal is to establish them while refining my skills. I also want to create many opportunities to talk about art and works with artists of all ages. I think that if the artist himself cannot talk about his work well, it will not be conveyed to the viewer, so dialogue is necessary for that. I would like to continue to actively challenge a wide variety of exhibitions and events, and take the opportunity to have dialogue and sublimate it into my own work."