(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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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Shizuka Kusayanagi is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, educator, and mother of two who creates paintings, drawings, and writings that examine and extract the essence of a subject matter to evoke a universal language of "feelings." She recently exhibited and was heavily involved in creating activations in the multi-faceted community of Mid-City through her duo show of paintings, drawings/writings, creative workshops, community feed and performances in collaboration with others in All the (Healing) Parts, at DMST Atelier in Los Angeles, CA (Sep-Oct 2024). Group exhibitions include AT HOME: The Inaugural IKEA Residency Exhibition (2024) at Surely Work Studios; Positive Exposure: Southern California Asian American Art (2023+2024) at Project Space and Tag Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and CHIMERA (2023) at la Beast Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. She has also shown at Arario Gallery in New York, NY (2010) and in Dublin, Ireland (2006). Her experience at the IKEA residency was written up in The Los Angeles Times; her short film was selected in the Motionpoems film catalog in association with the Poetry Foundation; and her drawings and installations were featured in Graphic Magazine and Grafuck. She has been selected for the Fall 2023 IKEA Residency cohort and was shortlisted for the Spring 2023 Hopper Prize. Shizuka has earned a BFA in Communication Design at Parsons School of Design, New York, NY. Shizuka has enriched her life with disciplines spanning drawing, printmaking, photography, writing, ceramics, cooking, producing creative workshops, and teaching art while working as a graphic designer and art director. While practicing painting, she has also created Art for All Ages, where she formulated curricula to guide people of all ages and art experiences to play, develop a voice, and foster healthy relationships with themselves and others. She also holds a certificate from the Social Emotional Arts program through Arts & Healing Initiative (formerly UCLArts & Healing) and hopes to bring arts-integrated education and the medicine of the arts to a broad audience, especially those in communities who lack the education, resources and voices. shizuka-kusayanagi.com/ instagram.com/illustrated_by_shizuk/