Reiko_Artist Statement

ARTIST STATEMENT

For me, making art is an action to depict what I want to look at and

touch. I try to capture the invisible and elusive by giving it form and

making it tangible. When the embodiment of my concept is connected to

my heart, I am encouraged and comforted. I found I can share this

experience with people through my art.

My ancestors, Japanese people in old times, paid close attention to

nature. They saw deities everywhere in nature; the sun and moon, wind

and rain, in mountains and the sea. Deities were also seen in trees,

animals, birds, bugs, and sea creatures. The belief in nature deities and

the sense to perceive their existence still exists in modern Japanese

people such as myself. These native beliefs influence my art.

I love beach combing and picking up seashells. What fascinates me

about the seashell is the life force and energy that once dwelled there

and animated it. They are born in the sea and make growth ridges which

are the record of their existence. When they die, the sea tumbles them,

rounds off the edges and abrades the surface leaving them bone white

as the seashells found on the beach.

We all came from the sea and leave traces of our journey just like

engraving wheels imprint irreversible marks on the glass. Sometimes we

undergo turmoil like being tumbled by the waves yet the trace of each

journey leaves its own unique, beautiful mark. I want to share and

celebrate the beauty of each of life’s individual, irreplaceable marks by

making my art.

—Reiko F. Nojima