Japanese American Buddhist Painting

I was born in Los Angeles, California in 1953, where I continue to live and work as professional artist. A painter and printmaker who creates images based on social observation and empathy for common people, I am a proponent of a new Social Realism for the 21st century. I favor craft, skill, beauty, draftsmanship, and profound narrative in art, and strive to create works that convey humanist concerns and a sense of the spiritual. I have been deeply influenced by the likes of Goya, the Mexican Muralists, the German Expressionists, the American Social Realist School of the 1930s and 1940s, and the Chicano Arts movement of the late 1960s. My commitment to figurative realism and universal themes of human solidarity and compassion are the perfect counterbalance to these chaotic times. In 2004 I founded the popular web log "Art for a Change," where I write about the intersection of art and politics; you can view my blog here: www.art-for-a-change.com/blog