Artist statement - Ami Kitajima

Since I was a child, my dream has been to travel the world, to see and experience it through travel. However, while living abroad, I was surprised to feel a growing sense of my own Japanese identity and the pride I felt toward it.  I was surprised to realize that I had failed to recognize what was so close at hand, as if I was in the dark under a lampstand.  I was so close and yet so far from seeing what was near me. While I was able to realize the importance of my hometown to me, I also realized that Japan today is westernized and has lost most of its beauty. My works are about my discovering of beauty in my culture and aspect of traditions that due to continue persist but also the memorial to "tradition" and "culture" that cannot resist the flow of time and change.

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I’ve embraced my use of Suiboku-ga (ink painting) to express the world I experienced through my cultural perspective with a Japanese aesthetic. Suiboku-ga, which was highly acclaimed a long time ago, is a form of Japanese ink painting.  I became interested in this older, traditional, form of painting. This traditional technique, which is losing its value, is a medium that allows for a simple, straightforward, yet rustic expression. It's simple composition and colors allow for effective use of margins. I am conscious of letting the viewer imagine without depicting details. I was attracted to the depth of Suiboku-ga, which can express dynamism, life, and infinite expanse with only one color, such as shades of ink, blotting, gradation, and the whiteness of the paper.