Makoto Endo, born in Niigata, Japan, studied illustration and graphic design in Tokyo. He began his professional life as a graphic designer at a Tokyo advertising agency, later relocating to New York where he worked as an art director and creative director over the course of a 25-year advertising career. In 2011 he transitioned to become a full-time painter. Having never truly stopped painting throughout his commercial work, he evolved a distinctive technique: energetically flinging Indian ink onto canvas with chopsticks. Concentrating primarily on motorcycles, his artistic aim is to capture and "paint the sound of the engine."