Artist Statement:
My figures speak to me of that peaceful place in myself - calm, open, aware.
My art reflects the influence of my childhood in Japan and of the rigorous discipline of my apprenticeship in traditional Japanese wood-fired ceramics. Wood firing and working with clay became a way of life, defining an aesthetic that guides my work and life.
For 40 years, my work with clay has challenged and nurtured me, enriched and transformed my life. The work has evolved from vessels and animal shapes to the human-like forms and abstract wall reliefs of recent years. The changes have come out of my relationship to the materials and process—the clay, kiln, firing, and my changing intentions. For the past 20 years I have also been working in bronze—most recently in China, where I’ve made larger-than-life figures for public spaces.
The forms I make—pots and sculpture, bronze and ceramic—are a tangible expression of my evolving inner self. There is beauty and power in their quiet simplicity.
I work in Kent, Connecticut where I built my studio and 30-foot-long Japanese style wood-firing tunnel kiln (anagama).
Private and Public Collections
2021–2023 Horokan Museum, 20-meter ceramic wall mural, One World, Amami- Oshima, Japan
2019 Western Connecticut State University, large scale bronze figures, Danbury, CT
2018 The Bauhinia (HK Chamber of Commerce), large scale bronze figures Ning Bo, PRC
2018 Horokan Museum, large scale bronze figures and wall mural installation, Amami- Oshima, Japan
2014 Mattatuck Museum, Sitter, Waterbury, CT
2012 Canadian Academy, Earth, Water, Sky, mural commission, Kobe, Japan
2010 Jing’An International Sculpture Park, Large scale bronze figures, Shanghai, PRC
2006 University of North Carolina, Currents, mural installation, Asheville, NC
2006 Yodogawa Christian Hospital, Song of Life, mural commission, Osaka, Japan
2002 Hartford Hospital, One Earth, One Family, mural commission, Hartford, CT