CID シド — What Japan Taught Me About Art, Identity and Building a Life Through Painting

There is a before and after in every artist’s life.

A moment when something breaks open inside you and you can never return to seeing the world the same way again.

For me, that moment happened in Japan.

 

I spent a month there — not as a tourist, but as someone trying to understand something about himself that he could not yet name.

I visited artists. Walked through galleries. Sat in spaces where silence carried weight.

And somewhere between Tokyo and Kyoto, between conversations I barely understood and paintings I felt completely, I discovered what had been missing all along:

permission to take myself seriously as an artist.

1. Shokunin — 職人

In Japan, the shokunin is more than a craftsman.

It is someone who dedicates years — sometimes an entire lifetime — to perfecting a single discipline with patience, repetition and respect.

• Every gesture matters.
• Every brushstroke carries intention.
• Every detail becomes a form of devotion.

Before Japan, I painted with urgency.

After Japan, I paint with urgency and precision.

That tension became fundamental to my work.

In neo-expressionist figurative painting, tension is what gives life to a piece: control and rupture existing at the same time.

That energy lives throughout the PRESENCIAS series — fragmented figures suspended between emotional collapse and inner strength, between visibility and disappearance.

2. Wabi-Sabi — 侘寂

Western perfection often seeks symmetry, cleanliness and technical flawlessness.

Wabi-sabi seeks truth.

It finds beauty in imperfection:

• in irregular ceramics,
• unfinished textures,
• a line that escapes control,
• a detail that refuses to be corrected.

Japan taught me something essential:

imperfection is not weakness. Imperfection is identity.

My asymmetrical eyes are intentional. My fractured geometries are intentional. The emotional distortion inside my work is intentional.

I do not paint to create correctness. I paint to create presence.

That philosophy defines the SOULS collection — emotionally exposed portraits built through raw geometry, instability and psychological intensity.

3. Ikigai — 生き甲斐

Ikigai means “reason for being.”

• The reason you wake up.
• The thing that gives meaning to your existence.
• The internal force that keeps you creating.

Not fame. Not validation. Not market approval.

Creation.

I understood this before Japan.

But Japan taught me to defend it.

 

4. Why シド

 

When I returned home, something changed in my signature.

I added シド.

Two katakana characters from the Japanese writing system used to transcribe foreign names.

• シ = “Shi”
• ド = “Do”

Together: “Shido.”

Exactly how CID is pronounced in Japanese.

This was never an aesthetic decision. It became a mark of transformation.

Today, my work exists in private collections in Japan — people from a culture radically different from mine connected emotionally with paintings born from my own internal language.

That changed me permanently.

It proved something important:

art can communicate beyond language, geography and culture.

That is what I seek in every series I create: a visual language that does not need translation.

CID シド is not Japanese.

It is CID recognised from the other side of the world.

The Contemporary Art Market and My Position Inside It

Japan also taught me something else:

how to understand business without losing identity.

 

The global art market fell 12% in 2024. Historic galleries closed. Traditional structures weakened.

Many artists are still waiting for the system to stabilise again.

I chose a different path.

I build.

Through PRESENCIAS, SOULS, KLYBO and SHIIDO, I am constructing a connected artistic universe defined by:

• emotional geometry,
• fractured human presence,
• psychological intensity,
• and a visual language that belongs entirely to CID シド.

 

My work is available both through selected galleries and directly through my online gallery:

www.ricardocid.art

• Same artwork.
• Same price.
• Same authenticity.
• Each original piece includes integrated NFC certification.

Two channels. One single criterion.

The shokunin does not wait for permission to work.

He perfects his craft. Protects the integrity of his work. And trusts that somewhere in the world someone will understand it.

That is what Japan taught me.

That is CID シド.