WORK
Photos By Jonathan Tercero
FRAMED ART WORK EXAMPLES
MONOTYPE
In my monotypes, I want to create an atmosphere that invites deeper inquiry. I use a painterly printmaking process that starts by my painting on a plexiglass plate with French oil-based etching inks. Then I run it through the press just once onto a Japanese paper substrate. The plate is then cleared. So each piece is unique. A suspended moment in time is captured.
PAINTINGS
I first become serious about painting in college at UC Berkeley, California. While in school, I worked in the Metallurgy Department where I was introduced to the electron microscope. I viewed an entire new universe inside a hairline fragment of metal. To convey this wonder of seeing space at the microscopic level I used sand and gesso substrates as the ground for my paintings.
Years later, while living in Tokyo, I learned the Nihonga painting technique (pigment and glue on mulberry paper mounted on board). I created textured effects by using colored patterns of pochoir on top of the flat Nihonga layer. In effect, I started mixing western techniques with traditional eastern methods and in the process became aware of my own Japanese American cultural duality. This inner dynamic tension between Eastern and Western aesthetics continues, but I always strive for a sense of balance and harmony in my work.