Artist Statement

                     My work as an artist is about celebrating culture in different ways. Even when it comes to class assignments, I always give my work a personal touch that holds meaning to my identity. For example, in my Asian Excellence series, I celebrated Asian culture for the whole community by showing how Asian actors and actresses can flourish in films and also addressed their lack of representation. I painted Asian American celebrities in iconic Hollywood backgrounds that typically do not represent people of color. To exemplify, I did a self portrait depicting myself as “Jane” Bond, both to address the lack of Asians and also to confront how the female characters typically only serve as love interests in the franchise.

                     I also explore the broad concept of culture with my Japanese and Brazilian heritage, as being part of two very distinct cultures has had a lot of impact on my childhood. With my two pieces for “The Persistence of Memory”, I wanted to incorporate Brazilian food. While I was raised in Japan, I would still be immersed in Brazilian culture as my mother would cook me Brazilian dishes. I chose to paint feijoada, the most well-known Brazilian dish. I also painted my aunt in the style of a vintage Japanese advertising poster, but with Guarana, a Brazilian soda, instead of Japanese beer.

                     Sometimes I reference other forms of art I enjoy. For example, I did the Vision painting since I enjoy Marvel movies and I wanted to experiment with painting the texture of metal. I also made earrings with drawings of Bad Bunny, my favorite Latin trap artist, using markers and colored pencils.

                   My work was also displayed at the “The Persistence of Memory” at the CUE Art Foundation. I also had a garment piece presented at the end of Teen Studio in Fashion program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.