"Emily Miller Yamanaka is a painter and textile artist currently living and working in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas.

 

After three years of studying traditional ink painting in Kyoto, Japan, she was awarded a full Monbukagakusho scholarship from the Japanese government to Musashino Art University in Tokyo. She was the first non-Japanese person to receive this honor in the history of the school and earned her Master’s Degree in Nihonga (Japanese Painting). Her Bachelors of Fine Arts is in Textile Design from the University of Kansas.

 

Inspired by the natural beauty of Kansas, the pieces in this "Follow the Sun" series are a celebration of her return to Kansas after many years in Japan. The layered surfaces are unique histories, like her own artistic journey, with the traditional Japanese ink, neon of Tokyo, textile textures, and gradations of change that are all charged with the positive energy of loving what she does."