The relationship between communities and land is at the core of my artistic practice. These two paintings, created while in residence at the Tusen Takk Foundation in 2021, represent the beginning of this engagement for me. The three-dimensionality of the works was produced by impressing rice paper onto rocks collected from Lake Michigan’s shores. I pressed the paper into the rocks’ grooves with a brush coated with melted animal glue, inspired by the takuhon technique—a traditional Japanese printmaking practice where one presses into paper to obtain the texture of a given surface. Once the rocks’ forms were shaped into the paper, I sprinkled creosote onto the surface like a pigment. I harvested this creosote from the Foundation Director’s chimney which came from local woods he burned. With the creosote affixed to the paper with animal glue, I then painted over the surface with Sumi while observing the Michigan landscape.
Sumi is a traditional Japanese ink made of soot and animal glue, which has over 2000 years of history. As a Japanese-born artist, I research Sumi culturally and scientifically in order to understand the heart of Japanese culture from the process of making this cherished craft. Through this research and by tracing the roots of Japanese cultural traditions, I ultimately seek to understand the core of shared humanity. By using Sumi, in addition to the creosote that came from the local wood, I observe the land and a given place’s culture to paint the visual and its presence with something that connects me to my own culture and to the land that I currently stand on. Ultimately, these two works represent the coming together of different landscapes and communities on the material, physical, and spiritual levels.
Image (left to right): Nishiki Sugawara-Beda, KuroKuroKami Leland II, 2021; Nishiki Sugawara-Beda, KuroKuroKami Leland III, 2021
ARTIST BIO
Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese-American visual artist based in painting and installation. She draws upon her Japanese heritage to explore themes related to culture, language, and spirituality rooted in Zen Buddhism. Connecting across space and time, she experiments in ancient Japanese materials and techniques including Sumi ink, Kakejiku landscapes, and rice paper, to merge them with abstract and expressive forms familiar to the modern Western aesthetic.
Sugawara-Beda’s most recent recognition is an acquisition by the Dallas Museum of Art for its permanent collection. She exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions and offers lectures nationally and internationally to promote cultural diversity and exchange. Exhibition venues include the Spartanburg Art Museum (SC), Morris Graves Museum of Art (CA), Dennos Museum (MI) and Amos Eno Gallery (NY). Publications include New American Paintings, AEQAI, Athenaeum Review, London Post, and Art Spiel. Awards including a Seed Grant, Diversity Fellow Program, International Enhancement Grant, Idaho Arts Fellowship, Sam Taylor Fellowship, Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Fund, and Tusen Takk Foundation residency have supported her artistic research. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Art at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
In addition to national conferences, including the College Art Association, Sugawara-Beda also gives keynote speeches and workshops to cultural organizations including Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Inc., OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Business Council for the Arts, Dallas.
THE TUSEN TAKK CHANNEL: AN ARTIST ENGAGEMENT SERIES
The Tusen Takk Channel is a partnership with Alluvion Arts @ 414 at Commongrounds in downtown Traverse City, MI. The Channel will feature Tusen Takk’s artists-in-residence in rotating exhibitions and in live programs at the Alluvion, all serving to anchor Tusen Takk’s public programming in the region.
Commongrounds is a real estate cooperative cultivating a more empowered community through cooperatively-owned places that connect people and actively integrate wellness, arts, family and food. The pilot project is a four-story mixed-use building at 414 E. Eighth Street, hosting a variety of nonprofit, business, and residential tenants; visual arts programming; and events and activities.
Featured Artist