Arizona artist Kaori Takamura is known for her vibrant, boldly graphic mixed media paintings that explore the interrelationships of art and design. Once a graphic and packaging designer by trade, she incorporates unconventional textile methods that are based on traditional fabric patterning, embroidery, and letterforms.
Takamura first rough-sketches her concepts digitally, working out their intricate compositions, patterns and color combinations onscreen. Those digital sketches are then converted into vector line artworks, which are in turn exported as AutoCAD files which can be read by large format laser cutters. Once the backing board and foreground shapes have been laser cut, Takamura applies her own silk-screen prints to them, or brush-paints them directly. Finally, the cut-out elements are stitched onto the painting canvas with loose threads and machine stitching.
Evoking joy, memory, childhood innocence and mischievousness, as well as the responsibilities and structure imposed by adult life, Takamura's work gives quiet expression to the intricate, multilayered, sometimes tangled nature of her own and other women's inner lives.