Natural Touch 

I grew up with a close connection to my Grandmother and the Japanese heritage we shared. She immigrated from Japan, and with that, she brought the history and the culture into my life. Flowers, plants, and how the seasons affected them were something to be admired. Much of my artwork has ties to nature and the Asian imagery I was influenced by as a child. Every year, throughout the seasons, family and friends from Japan would send letters enclosing the flowers and leaves featured at that time. One of my favorites included the vivid red Japanese maple leaf of Autumn. After my Grandmother passed away, I missed seeing them. Years later, the idea hit me: to get a hold of these leaves and incorporate them in to my artwork in a way that would preserve them forever. Soon enough I had branches of maples leaves in my hand directly from Japan. I preserved different groupings of them using a combination of methods to achieve the different shades of red I would need. Once I complete the original painting on canvas, I apply the real Japanese maple leaves and seal them in with resin. I predominately harvest the maple leaves in the fall, when they are at their best and brightest.

Not long after I began working with the maple leaves, I started creating works with other natural beauties, such as real bamboo leaves and a variety of flowers and foliage. These natural elements are applied to acrylic paintings on canvas and coated in resin as a modern relief painting.