Light artist
Earth Scientist (M.Sci.)
Electronic engineer (B.Eng.)

LIGHT ART FOLLOWING CELESTIAL THEMES
      ……… kindling the light from far afar realms in interior spaces

• Themes based on a six-month scientific expedition in the inner-Gobi desert (stars, sand, fire).
• Japanese aesthetics.
• Spiritual elements.
• Ideas and technical developments based on the artist’s scientific research background (crystal growth, new material application, modular construction).
• Applications to wall decorations, partitions, furniture, etc.

MAJOR SHOWS
Materials Matters (Toronto, 2004), PRAXIS (Toronto, 2004), Parkdale art show (juried) (Toronto, 2005), Candela light show (juried) (Ottawa, 2006), a duo show with Oreste Tataryn at Coldwater gallery (Coldwater, Canada, 2007), Invited artist at The Society for Arts and Ideas (Toronto, 2007), Invited artist at IIDEX/NEOCOM (Toronto, 2007), Arta Gallery (Toronto, 2007), Selected artist at the Royal Botanical Gardens (Oakville, Canada, 2008), Candela light show III (juried) (Ottawa, 2008), WASHINGTON DC SCULPTORS GROUP (juried) (2008), Invited featured artist at the Toronto Art Expo (2009), Art-2009 at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre, Divine Decadence (a high end boutique in Yorkville) (Toronto, 2009)、Creative Art Glass (a high end glass art company ) (Toronto, 2009), Promo-Arte Gallery (Tokyo, 2010), Asian Creative Art Exhibition, National Art Centre (Tokyo, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017).

EDUCATION
Ph.D. candidate, University of Toronto (2000 - 2002, withdrawn), M.Sc. Geosciences, Queen's University (1997), M.Sc. Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University (1995), B. ENG. Electronics, Nihon University, Tokyo (1985). 1988 Rotary International　Graduate School Full Scholarship Award

ARTIST STATEMENT

Part 1 Light

STARS on EARTH is what my art is. This is about inner stargazing, where the sublime part of the human mind, the stars, is awakened and the mystery beyond our seeing is glimpsed like a shimmer of water in darkness. My theme is to kindle this ecstasy through the use of Light by creating a moment of wonder of a child gazing upon the stars for the first time.

I was born and raised in Japan, where I became an electronic engineer and scientist. There, I also studied Suibokuga (a school of painting connected to Taoism and Buddhism) and eastern philosophy, which brought to my current work the stillness of Zen gardens along with two critical illuminations; universal Life runs through everything, and art and philosophy are one. Yet, art is also related to science in the sense that science is about seeing into the vast darkness of chaos in search of order. Art, science, and eastern philosophy thus congealed into an amalgam. My scientific career also exposed me to remote marvels of the earth, where I forged my artistic inspirations. In fact, I was awakened to Light under the star-fired skies of the Gobi desert during a scientific expedition.

My work is also about exploration of innovative use of Light, where it is being mixed, split, or led through tortuous paths. This is achieved by such effects as multiple reflection and/or diffraction realised by combining a range of materials such as crystals grown by myself, glass, various metals, concrete, LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), etc. Scientific ideas are thus at the core of my work.

The fourth element to my work is our own primordial essence, which may be glimpsed in Neolithic arts such as cave paintings. There is something inherent in Light that connects us directly to this mysterious primordial essence buried in our subconscious - it is this fleshly nature of Light that I explore. This connection to the primordial is also a return that brings us back to the stars - awakening of which within is my artist mission.

Find your star before it burns out.

Light is Life

Part 2 The moment

In essence, I consider my work as a vehicle for experiencing one’s inner Light, where a “moment” is created to remind the viewers of their own inner cosmos .

What is this inner Light? When our attention is drawn to the first blade of grass in spring, penetrating through the ice, we have a glimpse of Life as a universal essence. However, when this “glimpse” is kindled by Light such as the stars in the desert, the colours of dawn, or shimmer of summer ocean waves, it assumes a deeper spiritual nature in which we realise that the same universal Life/Light shines within our primordial essence. This is the moment of “inner Light” or “inner stargazing ” (the later is used henceforth), where we have an ephemeral communion with universal Life. Here, we awake as a child in the wilderness of Life, open our eyes for the first time, and utter “what (a) beautiful world this is”^#1. In this cradle (a moment ), a new lust^#2 is born. Using this intrinsic connection between physical Light and Life, I endeavour to light the moment of “inner stargazing” in architectural spaces and in the souls of people.

I believe that universal Life is also a “will” that simultaneously seeks destiny and return. For example, Life in a lush rising magma gives birth to a volcano, which is then through weathering reduced to “dust”, which then reaches the seafloor and then, through plate movements, returns to the magma, where it (dust) is reborn as a rising magma that manifests as a new volcano - this cycle repeats continuously. Yet, this return does not form a circle but a spiral because with every cycle volcanoes continuously evolve chemically and physically as if having a “will” to reach a certain destiny ^#3. As some stars nebulize into dust through supernova explosions, such evolution is present at a cosmic scale as well.

Just like this volcano, we too are born with a universal Life with its “will” spiralling to reach a destiny/return. Is our yearning a mere shadow of this “will”? As implicit in the very shape of the DNA, in which two spirals become one, the human society is a sphere of spiralling evolution of this Life/yearnings/destiny/return. Thus, we are only a part of the greater spirals - geometry of Life - of the universal “will” to reach a certain destiny . When we become one with this spiral of universal Life, we gaze^#3 upon our inner star for the first time, and return to our primordial consciousness, where Life fuses into Light.

Extinguish not the dim fire within.

Crystals grown by the artist/scientist

Notes

1. This should be read without the “a”.

2. The word “lust” is referring to deep-rooted (not sexual) desires. Both “lust” and “gaze” are rooted to our primordial consciousness, a small fire, and are thus somewhat interchangeable.

3. These ideas are derived from Buddhism and other ancient eastern ideas, however, similar thoughts existed in ancient western spheres as well. This may explain the totally unintended resemblance of them to that in the Old Testament. In fact, some researchers assert that there are substantial similarities between the Old Testament and ancient eastern beliefs. In here, the words “Dust”, “Inner Light”, so on are NOT used in any religious context.