This painting did not start with this title, though the vision of it came out very vividly and quickly in my mind when I was feeling into what wanted to come out of the canvas one day. I decided to keep the orb-like shape almost untouched, leaving the white canvas blank inside, but with a rainbow array of colors spreading from the center out at the base. If you stand in front of this painting the size of a very large mirror, it has the movement of both expansion and contraction, spreading out and coming home. Right now, as I have returned to my home country, Japan, but in a new city, and moved away from my “home” of almost thirty years in the US, I rediscovered a new feeling of home, and remembered how I was feeling when I painted this work a year ago. This work is about returning home, to your inner world that anchors you to who you are, stripped of any responsibilities, titles, or expectations, to the light, the furnace, the love that we innately hold at birth. It is catastrophic that people’s homes are being destroyed, uprooted, and vanished, not just the infrastructure, but along with their memories, their identities, and communal ground. I wonder if the way people survive such tragedies, or any life-altering threat, is because of this pilot light of their inner home that is very hard to extinguish. This light can feel small and faint, even if the exterior world may look lush and splendid. This light can feel like a glowing balloon when you are in an environment that fits you just right. I have been thinking about this, comparing my life in the US and my new life in Japan. At what place or space did I feel this sense of home throughout my life? Was I able to find it where I thought I would? Or did I not pay attention to pursue this sense of security and belonging? I’ve come to understand that tuning into this feeling—every day, every moment, with intention—is key to truly knowing oneself. From that awareness flow the thoughts and actions,

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.