Whenever the snow starts to fall,
I am somehow filled with excitement.
Will it stay on the ground? What a nuisance if it does!
But don't let it stop!
I find myself back in my childhood days
Stretching out my hands
In a kaleidoscopic flutter of snowflakes.

Hi. My name is Yoko Oshida, and my works have been chosen to appear on the Canon website this year. I hope you enjoy them.
My mother often used to say to me, "When you were little, Yoko, you never tired of drawing pictures on the backs of calendars and stuff." Pictures of ants were my favorite.
In my high school days I had dreams of becoming a manga artist. I'd spend hours and hours drawing manga, to the detriment of my studies, and kept hopefully sending them in to the magazines, though unfortunately none of them ever got published. It wasn't until I was already grown up that I first encountered the world of children's illustrations, at an education center I happened to be attending. For someone like me who had always wanted to paint, that was a big turning point.
I hope to advance ever further into the world of children's illustrations with its boundless freedom.