About the Artist

Iconsider myself a post-expressionist painter - I paint with my feelings and my reactions to the visual stimuli of life. I create my art emotionally - not striving for figurative accuracy. The root of my artistic voice or "signature" stays constant, while its manifestations are constantly progressing and changing.

Art helps enrich the way I view the physical world around me and the human spirits I encounter during the day. Painting people has given me a greater sense of lovingkindness towards other people. Painting brings me joy and satisfaction in little things.

I am a risk-taker, with an entrepreneurial spirit. These qualities are manifested in my art. I tend to work quickly. Visual corrections are part of my style. I am deeply influenced by Chinese brush painting, and I tend to draw with brushes rather than with graphite or charcoal.

I am drawn by certain topics. Because I am a musician, I enjoy painting musicians. I have done a number of orchestra paintings, paintings of violinists, chamber musicians, and self-portraits of myself playing cello.

I often do urban landscapes, and many of these are scenes of traffic. I find myself in traffic every day, and painting has helped me accept the beauty around me even in a traffic jam.

During the past several years, I have concentrated mainly on abstract painting. Some of these are based on topics (the human figure, or candle celebration after the Tsunami). Some of these are based on landscapes, which I call abstracted landscapes.

I had a spell where I was interested in the Washington Monument, and painted it many times, with and without the monument. The reality of the Washington Monument for me became a lovely artificial water body reflecting the moon surrounded by mountains. That's one of the wonderful things about painting. You get to create your own reality.

Lately, I have returned to painting portraits. I paint only those who I love and revere. My new portraits are of Barack Obama, and my niece, Rie Kamimura. I paint portraits of these wonderful people over and over again.

Thank you for your interest in my artwork.