A piece of fabric, the fold of a petal, a windy landscape or blinding desert sun, come, for a moment, into focus. With flattened perspective, pattern, scrapes and raw brush strokes, I carve light into my canvas. Color and contrast add the final “jewelry” to the image. The story is mine and yet, the “familiar” is always there. Growing up in Japan, I was influenced by the flattened perspective in the woodblock prints my mother collected. That technique allows the image to have an immediacy and a sense of elan. My work has been described as having an energy that jumps off the canvas and into the room. A former museum educator, I decided to earn a personal “MFA” by studying painting with as many admired artists as possible. Eventually I began to teach at many art facilities in the metro area, including the PACE Center, Curtis Art Center and the Art Student’s League, Denver. Influences are Cezanne, Diebenkorn, MD Nelson and Kasumasa Nakagawa. Represented by Artists on Santa Fe, Gallery, Denver, CO