My interest in color and light has been consistent since childhood and it plays a strong role in my art. Growing up I noticed that we all have our own sense of color and although we may share the same impression of color, we may attach different symbolic meanings- depending on one’s culture. 

 

When I was about 3 years old, I was hospitalized because of red urine. My mother said I found the color to be beautiful. I naturally recognized the beauty of red even though I didn’t understand it was an unhealthy signal of the body. It has made me think of an inherent sense of color in humans. On the other hand, the environment I grew up in taught me colors are named and given symbolic meanings by humans. My family’s religion is Japanese Buddhism but I went to a Christian kindergarten. I was taught that red is the color of the blood from Jesus Christ, meanwhile red was used as a symbol of the sun and happiness for the Japanese. The confusion made me question what is the truth of color.

 

By looking at transforming colors in a sky or light reflecting on water, I feel beauty and universalness. When thinking about how we live in the world, I’m reminded that we are all a movement of particles. By recognizing we are made up of particles of light, I feel that we are a part of nature and keep changing every moment. The movements of energy such as the sun, water, and winds give me a sense of these colors being transformative. And yet, light is always present, even invisible and a consciousness recognizing the movement has never changed. When I attempt to capture light, the subject becomes not so important and the work more about light, shadow, hue, and their interactions. As I am working on a painting, dualities such as positive and negative space or light and dark are unified in the work. When I feel like melting into nature and connections begin to appear between everything, moment to moment like in a dream, I aim to mark this sensation in my paintings.