Ohana

“Ohana was born and raised in Akita, Japan where there is an abundance of natural beauty. The beautiful wilderness of her hometown and one significant awakening experience she had greatly influenced her spirituality and aesthetic sense that guided her to be a seeker and an artist.

When Ohana was fifteen years old, during her regular early-morning walk in nature, the environment around her suddenly changed. Everything was shining as if all was in brilliant light. Through the silence, she heard all of nature speaking to her, imbuing her with their soulful sentience.

After that shocking day, Ohana spent days trying to figure out how she could share this experience with the rest of the world and finally she found that creating art was the answer. Ever since, Ohana has drawn inspiration from nature and her spirituality. At the same time, she became a dedicated seeker of Truth, which is at the core of all her artistic expressions.

Although art took root early on in her life, after moving to the United States in 1991, Ohana took break from art to focus on raising her family. During this hiatus, she had a second profound, spiritual experience —this one, a near-death experience—in which she became aware of a reality beyond the physical, aware of the existence of the transcendent Light that is in, and with all. This season deeply enriched her spirituality and broadened her perspective on life, giving her art the necessary nutrients to flourish.

Then, in 2015, Ohana’s circumstances allowed her to re-dedicate her time to creating art—this time in the form of abstract painting.

Ohana’s paintings are primarily intuitive. She starts her painting meditatively: with an empty mind, free from rationalization. She applies layers of thin paint, and adds marks, drips, planes with various colors. The technique she subconsciously use a lot for her painting is layering. This technique is rooted in her study of Kimono-dyeing and her love of water colors. The number of layers create atmospheres that words cannot express.

When she paints figures and objects, her approach is to express the essential truth that exists in them instead of copying the outward appearance of them; Ohana let herself put marks and shapes as she feels from the object. Each experience is a surprise, making it impossible for her to predict the outcome. Through painting in the abstract, Ohana is able to capture just a glimpse of the essence of the Wabi-Sabi worldview: incompleteness, imperfection, life in-the-moment, and spirituality beyond words.

Both the spiritual journey and the art-making journey will never end. Ohana’s art-making seeks to share this never-ending journey with the viewers through her spiritual experiences. Informed by these experiences, she hopes to create art that captures the true essence of all things—that there are no boundaries and that there is a Light ever-falling upon us.” Instagram.