Artist Statement

My artistic explorations are inspired by childhood nostalgia that sparks memories of 1970s post-war Tokyo, where Western influence suddenly inundated the rapid economic growth of an otherwise traditional culture. Traditional Japanese aesthetic emphasizes modesty and simplicity, which originates from the Shinto and Buddhist Zen teachings, philosophies based on the premise that every human experience is substantial despite entering the world from nothingness and returning to nothingness. The two contradictory ideologies began intermingling in the everyday mundane of life in Tokyo; the modest traditional immaterial belief from the past was deluged by an influx of materialism and consumerism that revitalized a collective sense of joy, hope, and optimism for the future. As I observed this voyage of cultural adaptation and growth of my country, it overlapped with my own coming-of-age, where I also adopted a sense of adoration for the Western motifs that sprinkled my childhood memories. Today, I explore these juxtapositions by infusing Western toyetic sentiments into a tactile artistic language that overlays conceptual reflections of Eastern values, such as the sublime aging process that provides perspective to the passage of time. My artistic process aims to reveal my intrinsic traditional belief formed through the life of a migrant Japanese American that was suppressed by an overbearing dominant culture.