Chikako

Chikako was born and raised in Japan, graduated from the University of Tokyo, and attended graduate school at the University of Massachusetts. Chikako has received no formal art training, but as a child she liked to draw and enjoyed crafts. She has since become an accomplished artist. As such she shares the spirit of "outsider art". Outsider art is a term that denotes art produced by an artist without formal training of any kind–purely self-taught–showing talent and artistic insight that is often deemed missing in the cookie-cutter world of many of today's art schools.

In the early 70s, Chikako lived in Livornese, Italy, the birthplace of Modigliani, who left an artistic inspiration in his birthplace that crossed peoples' cultural and educational backgrounds. During this time she started sketching the canals and gondolas of Venice.

Continuing to be inspired by Modigliani's economy of composiiton and neutral backgrounds, her paintings can be described int the same way.

"My objective is to surround myself in bright colors and textures, so that I'm living in a space that's visually stimulating no matter what I'm doing. I like to create art using geometric lines because I can express simplicity and movement at the same time. I use fabrics as a medium to create the warmth that we need to get through the dark days of winter. I also use rice paper uniquely produced in Japan that resembles the texture of fiber for warmth and softness. To me, art is a work and creation of visual illusion," she says.