(Oil and oil pastel on linen) I turned to meditation and painting as meditation as a response to a traumatic experience that shook me sideways. While feeling all the emotions that would want me to stab, kick, punch, yell, hide, I could center myself, completely present in the face of a blank canvas, and start building forms and colors that wanted to be poured out. The way pearls are created by oysters as a defense mechanism from irritants having entered into the body… If oysters and mussels were artists they create something beautiful as as a result of having processed stress and pain, to stay as their healthy, authentic self. And I don’t mean “artists” in a literal sense. We are all artists pushing through discomfort and creating life every moment.

Shizuka Kusayanagi

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Painter and dwriter (draw & writer), now based in Fukuoka, Japan. I’m passionate about art as a way of connecting—both with oneself and with others. I believe there’s no hierarchy among art forms. My practice ranges from oil paintings on linen to single-panel cartoons on index cards, and inclusive, all-ages art workshops. More to come.