I
am deeply grateful for my Japanese culture and heritage. I
was raised speaking two languages in my family. My mother is
Japanese and my father is Californian. I am who I am today because
of my parents, as well as my Japanese and Danish ancestors who have passed on
before me. I grew in love and appreciation particularly for my Asian
ancestors as I sat with my mother who shared story after story of intimate,
unrecorded memories of my great-great grandfather who was a samurai in his
village and of his wife who took care of the poor. As I learned more about my past, my
love grew deeper and I came to the realization that we truly don’t exist by
chance, but that our life is the product of other lives preceding it. All that we do, be it small and simple,
or grand and extraordinary, not only builds our character, but also lays a
foundation for our posterity.
Through being
exposed to my heritage and having served an LDS mission in Japan, I have felt
my true identity made clearer. My
work is intended to show through personal symbols how one generation can have
an effect on the next, or in my case how my ancestry has paved the way for my
future. I address this by creating
a system of rules that are limited to one direction allowing each work to
affect the next. The
past, present and future are interwoven into lines and shapes, which represent
unity in a family bond, unrestrained by time. I want to address this through my artwork by creating
personal symbols that represent a deep yearning to come closer to those who
have gone before me.
