ARTIST STATEMENT

My work begins with making. I move between felt, paint, and digital media depending on what a particular project requires. I do not approach these materials as separate practices. They are different ways of building characters, objects, stories, and environments.

I am interested in the ordinary things through which people experience culture: food, handmade objects, small rituals, familiar characters, humor, and moments shared with others. Japanese culture is an important part of this language, but the work is also shaped by encounters with other places, people, and contemporary forms of communication.

Craft is important to me because it carries evidence of time and attention. A sewn edge, a painted surface, or a constructed object retains the decisions involved in making it. Even when I work digitally, I am interested in maintaining that sense of individual character rather than removing it.

Across the different projects, I use craft and narrative as ways of thinking about memory, connection, and cultural exchange, and about how handmade forms can continue to operate within contemporary life.