(oil, colored pencil and weld pigment on board, with artist frame of walnut and cherry) This painting holds many stories, like its layers of chalk gesso, oil paint, colored pencil, and weld pigment, starting as blank and formulated over time without any preconceived idea of what it was going to look like. I called it “Ophelia” because as I was painting over layers, an abstract image of a female figure showed up. Though, unlike the tragic character from the works by John Everett Millais and Shakespeare, this Ophelia floats on water in total peace, surrounded by abundant nature under the blue sky. This is her happy place, and so is mine, no matter how loud and chaotic the outside world may get, when I have a chance to float on my back on the water, whether in the bath, pool, or the ocean and close my eyes, I can hear myself breathe, just be, at and in peace. As I look at the painting now, it is a call, a spell, a prayer for peace. The dandelion also showed up unexpectedly over the painting, and it is a symbol of resilience and hope, and I intend that peace spreads wildly and vastly like their seeds do.

Shizuka Kusayanagi

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Shizuka Kusayanagi (b. 1982, Yokohama, Japan) is an artist, designer, and educator whose practice centers on painting, drawing, and text as forms of translation—exploring how personal and emotional experiences can be expressed beyond words. After more than 25 years living in New York and Los Angeles, she recently returned to Japan and now lives and works in Fukuoka. Working primarily in oil painting, Kusayanagi also works across drawing, printmaking, installation, photography, video, and text. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo show at Signal Gallery in Fukuoka, Japan; DMST Atelier, Project Space, and la Beast Gallery in Los Angeles; Arario Gallery in New York; and in Dublin, Ireland. Recent exhibitions include All The (Healing) Parts (2024), Positive Exposure: Southern California Asian American Art (2023), and CHIMERA (2023). Kusayanagi was selected for the Fall 2023 IKEA Residency and shortlisted for the Spring 2023 Hopper Prize. Her IKEA residency experience was featured in The Los Angeles Times. Her short film was selected for the Motionpoems film catalog in association with the Poetry Foundation, and her drawings and installations have been featured in Graphic Magazine and Grafuck. She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design in New York.