Purpose of making art

My greatest pleasure is making art, especially painting. Making art is a meditation for me. I have expressed myself through sculpture, oil painting, watercolor painting, and printmaking. It is no exaggeration to say that I have been making my art in my own inventive and creative ways. I am very proud of what I have been doing, and it creates happiness in my whole life.

History of Iku

I was a sculptor before I became a painter. At the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston I made ceramic and bronze sculptures. I gradually lost interest in working in three dimensions as I started painting in water color and oil - and discovered that creating works in two dimensions woke up my mind to new intellectual excitement. After moving to New York, I mastered the more detailed and complex processes of printmaking at NYU and at Bob Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop. I received my MFA from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Art Skill

In my oil painting, I have innovatively used ceramic clay to explore the intersection between two and three dimensions.
Ironically, this technique came about as a result of my early sculpting experience. The clay in the oil painting cracks after drying, revealing a very intricate surface, with beautiful color pigments, transparency, and mysterious movement.
I also have applied the use of ceramic clay to printmaking in a technique I have developed for making viscosity silk screen collographs. This way I can make many pigments using only two or three color inks. The result is a complex and sophisticated print.

Imagination: Where my art comes from

Over the course of my life and education it has been exciting for me to discover the connection of human beings to the forces of Nature and the Universe. I have tried to see it all through different lenses, such as Science, Philosophy, and Religious and Traditional beliefs about our Beginnings.
Through my studies I came to understand that images processed through my imagination are an essential part of my artistic creative force, and I have incorporated them in everything that I have been creating.
One of my specialties (and also a favorite activity of mine) is to experience a visualization of my imagination while reading a novel. For instance, one of my favorite novels is The Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown. From this novel came a series of watercolor paintings I called, DA VINCI RECODE.
I also have paid homage to the works of the French painter Georges De La Tour. Some of his women's faces look like Kyoto Gosho Ningyo (Japanese porcelain dolls.) These have inspired my own paintings, including self-portraits.
Despite specific influences, I am constantly surprised and impressed at how my hand keeps moving, freely, to record on canvas or paper what visions have come from deep inside me - ranging from figurative to completely abstract images. In my most inspirational work I trust completely in my eyes, hands and fingers to "just do, without mind". Every day, every moment, my feeling is different. As a result, the lines and colors of my images are very free.