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A Window into Another Beautiful World

Window, windows, windows...
Are you inside, or outside?

And if you had a window in your heart, what would it look like from the inside and from the outside?

A window is a place you see;
a window is also a place where
you are seen.

My window paintings explore nonverbal communications between two sides. A window is an opening and a surface that reveals some of the most private and personal spaces in our minds and in everyday life. It is one of the closest borders we encounter and experience daily. A window is a connection—between one and another, inside and outside, and you and me.

A Window as a Symbol of Human Nature

A window is a symbol of human nature. There is something about people that can only be seen from outside the window. I have long been interested in human behavior—gestures, actions, and habits that arise from both conscious and unconscious states of mind. To me, the window has become an organic symbol of human presence.

A Window as Part of Architecture

Windows are part of the public view and can be seen by anyone passing by. It captures, displays, and reflects the habits, behaviors, and curiosity of human beings. A window is a connection and therefore one of the most sensitive and fragile aspects of a space. It offers both security and insecurity against potential harm from the outside world. It gives us only partial information about what lies beyond.

All architecture contains some form of window. A window is evidence of our innate desire to remain connected to the rest of the world. Architecture can be understood as a material incarnation of values, economies, ideologies, and what we are as societies and individuals.

My window paintings use architecture as a metaphor for the mind, for art, for deep thought, for communication, and for the ways we structure ideas. Looking through a window is an act of awareness.

The Closest Another World

From either side, looking through a window is perhaps the closest experience we have of another world—one that also reflects ourselves. Sometimes that reflection is subtle, almost invisible; at other times it is as clear and bold as a mirror.

In reality, we are part of what we see. We shape the world around us, and the world in turn shapes us. Each of us helps shape the world we see into what it is today. What we see “outside” is also connected to us and, in some way, part of us. Yet we are often only faintly aware of the world into which we are born, raised, live, and eventually die.

The Idea of Inside and Outside

Do those “sides” truly exist, or do they exist only in our minds? A window connects and separates spaces at the same time; it depends on how we understand the space itself.

From small personal events in individual lives to major social and political issues, all of these experiences unfold within this shared space. Even when we are unaware of everything that is happening around us, we are affected by it, and we also affect it in return. Small, unseen personal actions can influence the collective whole of society.

We all know one way a window transforms a space: by allowing sunlight to enter, it enables plants indoors to grow.

​©︎ 2026 Atelier de Natsumi Goldfish. All rights reserved.

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