(mellow music) - For me, I think being Japanese American has always been central to how I navigate the world.

I feel like that's such a deep question of how my ancestral roots impact me today.

(mellow music) I think it's difficult for people to imagine two worlds coming together within a person and seeing you for the entirety of the person that you are.

That is everything in my work.

I am really interested in showing how these two cultures can kind of combine in this weird visual language that I've started to play with.

(mellow music) There are a lot of expectations of any race.

I am interested in pushing back against that, but in a way that is more framed as self-confidence.

(mellow music) I've been using a lot of raw canvas that I will actually wash and dry, and then I'm able to dilute my paints and soak them in in layers, which I feel like is reminiscent of Japanese watercolors and Sumi ink.

I'm particularly interested in noh mask of the young, beautiful woman, which is from a traditional Japanese performance, and I've used this to represent the surface level view of race and the expectation of Asian woman in particular.

(mellow music) I think the humor is that I am framing a Japanese historical face on this macho, masculine, American body.

I think what has been the most challenging or interesting about my biracial identity and experience is this binary way that the world wants to view you in terms of race and culture, and that you have to be one thing or another when in reality I feel like I've lived a very rich combination of both cultures.

(mellow music)