Anchient Tales
collage
18" x 15"

FUMIKO KIMURA

“Embracing the Dao”

Fumiko Kimura believes the purpose of art is to keep us spiritually and physically healthy – in touch with our feelings and aware of others. She writes: “When I walk the forest floor or grassy park instead of concrete sidewalks, I feel the full earth’s energy coming through my feet and body into my soul. Nature is a place where I receive my inspiration to create and evolve new paintings." Over the years Kimura has combined her use of sumi and watercolor with collage to render these feelings.

A second generation Japanese American artist, Kimura was born in Idaho and educated at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA., (B.S. Chemistry and M.A. Art Education), Kyoto Nanga School (Japan) and Senju-in Zen Temple (Japan). Artist, teacher, activist, and publisher, she has received over 40 awards in regional, national, and international competition. Her list of solo and group shows include the Bellevue Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Kyoto International Cultural House, and the Wing Luke Asian Museum.

Going to Japan in 1940 to visit her grandparents near Sendai in Northern Japan, she and her family were stranded there at the outbreak of WW II. During the difficult times she studied Nihonga, a Japanese style of opaque watercolor and Western watercolor techniques, finding an inner life in art that would define her life's path.

Returning to Tacoma in 1947 as a high schooler, she lived with an American family to relearn English. After a career in chemistry, she returned to more serious painting. In 1985, she traveled again to Japan to study Asian calligraphy and sumi painting. With a sense of personal and professional renewal, she returned to Washington State and co-founded the Puget Sound Sumi Artists (PSSA). With this group, she actively arranges cultural exchange exhibits between Japanese sumi and calligraphy artists and northwest sumi artists. In 1997, she published Painting in Sumi-Stroke on Stroke, a guide book for beginning students of sumi art.

Over her years of career, Kimura has worked in many mediums. She continues to paint, teach, and exhibit in the United States and Japan.

“Sumi paintings, derived from Asian brush calligraphy, convey spirit (energy) imparted from arm body movement of the artist. I enjoy the simplicity and drama of the images created capturing the essence of the subject.

Mixed media collages are my personal record of the experiences encountered in daily life. This process allows me to be more direct and intimate with the media, in order to transmit thoughts, ideas and events. I follow my own natural inclination, breaking away from conventional thinking, and focus on my love of colors, textures, and shapes. Found material, personally crafted papers, and brush calligraphy are glued in layers, signifying thoughts, past experiences, and ideas. This process allows the works to evolve, build, change, and grow to a finished piece, and is a truly enjoyable journey for me.”