All photos are off of Kiyomi Fukui’s website.

Artist: Kiyomi Fukui
Exhibition: The Green Thumb Project
Media: Mixed Media
Gallery: Online Art Gallery
Website: http://www.kiyomifukui.com/
Instagram: kiyomimiz

Kiyomi Fukui is a Japanese-American artist from Long Beach, California. She received her MFA from California State University Long Beach and her focus were on printmaking. She received her BFA from La Sierra University and her focus there was Graphic Design. Fukui has a strong background in mixed media as she versed in mixed media. Fukui’s work explores the ideas of connection, intimacy, family, love, vulnerability, and explores other personal experiences in their work. Fukui has done many is exhibitions during the past couple of years.

Fukui’s artwork is personal to her which makes it special. I liked the honesty of her artworks. Her artwork is also beautifully done. She did present many art pieces to the class this past week via zoom. The one work that I liked was the Green Thumb Project. With this project, Fukui made an autobiographical piece about her mother. Her mother passed away due to cancer. Before she did Fukui made a mold of her thumb. She kept that mold and ended up making a mold her own thumb. These are molds were so detailed. They were cast out of paper mache and paper scraps. She then embedded a seed in the mold and planted them. Later the seed began to sprout! This is such a powerful metaphor for growth and the cycle of life. Fukui explained it as, “spreading into other spaces and seeing the process of her growing.” I loved how each mold was placed in different settings to see the whole aspect of the project.

As I said earlier, Fukui’s artwork touches on her own personal experiences with her family. This then leads to her exploration of the topics of connection and intimacy. Her work showcases her own personal growth as well as her growth as an artist. She cast her molded thumbs and turned them into growing seeds which is a great idea. Over Zoom she explained how these personal experiences affected her and her artwork. She mentioned that all her artwork is personal to her and that’s where she gets inspiration from.

Overall, I enjoyed this artist’s conversation even though it was done via zoom! I felt like even though it was on a Zoom call I still got to know Fukui as an artist and as a human. she was open about her life and her life. I liked how to openly went to her website to explain all of her work. I liked how diverse her artwork was because it shows how much she loves to work on her craft. Artists like her are cool becasue she tells important stories. Artists like her are telling their own stories and sharing their creations with the world. It’s a lovely thing to see.