short biography
Most importantly, my art is grounded in my search for myself.
Living on earth at this time in history, with my family and friends. The complexity and richness of interactions that we encounter in daily life, interlaced with the observation of nature's delight and joy fill me to the brim.
Yet my art wants to address the essence of my experience, of the ordinary and the extraordinary.
I was born in Tokyo, Japan, and studied architecture at Tokyo University of Fine Arts. My MFA degree (1977) is from Cornell University, in print-making. My earliest artists’ books were exhibited at the Center for Book Arts and the Metropolitan Museum in 1986. I had an apprenticeship at Dieu Donné Papermill in 1987, and developed my own technique to create works using kozo fiber with inclusions of printed paper, cloth, threads, and pigmented linen pulp. I received a fellowship at Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop in 1990. I have used intaglio printmaking as my personal tool for creating my own visual world. I have kept up with artists’ bookwork with equal obsessive passion. My recent artists’ bookworks include intaglio prints, letterpress, and structural inventions for bookbinding.
I have taught workshops on artists’ books at many institutions: The Center for the Book Arts in New York City, San Francisco Center for the Book, Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT, as well as at many colleges and universities.
My works are included in many public and private collections, nationally, and internationally, including the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Library, and Getty Center Research Library.