Meet the Makers: Product Designer Mariko Kusumoto
In this Meet the Makers blog series, we will feature an artist that, quite simply, makes something. Drawing inspiration from custom works handcrafted in various media, we travel beyond the pieces by diving into the minds of the creative makers themselves.
Today, we feature our interview with Mariko Kusumoto, the creative designer of a fiber product line that can be used as wearable accessories. Mariko utilizes different color fibers to craft organic art forms that take on many different shapes and sizes. These unique accessories are all hand crafted directly out of her studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
GPI Design: What (3) words best describe your work?
Mariko Kusumoto: Discovery – Surprise – Wonder
GPI: What compels you to create with this particular medium?
Kusumoto: Various observable phenomena that helps stimulate my mind and senses.
GPI: What is your biggest constraint in the creative process?
Kusumoto: Time has always been my biggest constraint.
GPI: What would your 5 year old former self say about your work now? And what do you hope your future 90 year old self will say about your current work?
Kusumoto: My 5 year old self and 90 year old self would both say a quote from Isamu Noguchi: “When an artist stops being a child, (she/he) stops being an artist.”
GPI: What other maker would you most like to collaborate with?
Kusumoto: I usually prefer to work alone.
GPI: What do you think the future of creation/creativity holds (for you, and the artistic world as a whole)?
Kusumoto: I think necessity, to maintain beauty in the human experience.
GPI: What does your work space look like right now? Send us a selfie of you in your creative arena!
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Many thanks to Mariko Kusumoto for the intuition of her delicate creation. Stay tuned to our next Meet the Makers interview coming up in two weeks! The interviews will publish every other Tuesday throughout the remainder of the year, focusing on a wide variety of makers, which has us truly redefining what it means to create.
View this maker’s work: Mariko Kusumoto