Shizukesa (The Quietness)

Sixteen years ago I experienced a sudden shock in my life. I was young and I grappled with feelings of isolation from the world. Faced with this loss, I unmoored myself and traveled freely, but with intention, a journey that has since led me millions of miles and across forty-four countries. What I encountered was a chaotic world, one rich with life but free of form. I struggled to make sense of this. Searching for inspiration to hone my vision I encountered the work of Hopper and Hokusai. Their contextualized framing and depictions of life as it unfolded spoke to me of my experience growing up in Tokyo, a city defined by its organized chaos. Drawing inspiration from their work I began seeking visual frames as a way of ordering the life I was seeing. It was my way of re-connecting. This newfound context gave me the stage on which to see the theater of life play out—the world is complex, but in structure there is serenity.