Artistic Process

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One element of Japanese art that resonates deeply with me is the celebration of the imperfect, the acknowledgement of the humanness of flaws and working with that. If I wanted a photo-realistic piece, I'd look at a photo, but art is interpretation, viewed and understood through lenses colored by our individual experience. So much of the Nihonga technique I experienced in Tokyo was to focus on the subject in your mind, and connect it to your hands to create your own vision of what it is you're painting. Finding the one true line, the essence of that form to be committed in one flowing motion in the final ink, is to me a powerful act of expression. I love the way the puzzle unfolds in my head, using the knowledge of the Suibokuga ink brush techniques paired with the Nihonga materials, juxtaposed with the spray paint textures and acrylics. I love the whites and grays and the softness of Nihonga, mixed with the vibrancy of neon spray paints, then accented with hand carved stamped shibori shapes.
 

 In studying textile design, I discovered my love of pattern and attention to detail, my tendency to focus on one square that I just love, as well as my infatuation with gradation... this seamless transition that blurs the boundary between two separate things.  I use doilies, delicate webs of design handmade by women dedicating hours and hours to intricate crochet, to give my work another dimension of "history," honoring the artists of previous generations. I spray gradient color mixes through them to leave an echo of their past becoming a new present. I save the best parts and the flaws together, elaborately building layers of tape and pattern echoes, a technique inspired by a texture that captivated me throughout the streets of Tokyo... on poles, walls, everywhere you looked were these historic remnants of where announcements and sign declarations once spoke to the people in the streets. I weave the textures of color and echoes of pattern throughout my art, and add layers of Japanese inks and mineral pigments to enhance the depth and vibrancy of every hue and shadow.


In Tokyo I was the only American at my university, and that experience inspired and taught me to explore my mind's eye image of America and in the process, I discovered things I never realized I loved. I think especially growing up in the Midwest it was easy for me to take its natural beauty for granted, but I have a new appreciation for the endless sky in Kansas, and so many other things I love. That is the seed from which sprouted my Kansas series, with the idea of integrating all of the elements of my artistic experiences and my own history to produce my own unique, Japanese-infused image of the rustic, wild, wind-swept beauty of the Kansas I love.