2024 Crisis of Faith, “What Lies Beneath,” Collage Artists of America, Annual Juried Open Virtual Collage Show (1 November-31 December), https://sfvacc.org/. Zoom reception 2 November, 4:00 p.m. PST:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84330926828?pwd=bU2AQ1bc5ZuD32dGFwUoOjk4IybaxI.1

Description: Visual narrative: What is salvaged or salvageable from the rubble beneath the grand edifice. Construction? Deconstruction? Reconstruction?

2024 Which Way to Face, National Collage Society, 40th Annual Juried Exhibit. Meyerhoff Gallery at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA),  Baltimore, MD. (8 November – 15 December 15). , 2024, and online on the NCS website https://www.nationalcollage.com/. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, 14 November, 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Description: In Meiji (1868-1912) Japan, modernization included experiments with fashion. Elite men cut their topknots and wore suits, while elite women, including the empress, were obliged to “face” to both the “East” (Japan) and the “West” (W. Europe/USA) depending on the occasion or event. Official business called for “western” attire, domestic affairs called for kimono. Which way to “face” alludes to the daily navigation and negotiation of cosmetic and sartorial boundaries and identities. This collage is broadly symbolic of the visual politics of contested appearance and identities way beyond Meiji Japan.

2024 Collectomania, Invited for inclusion in the on-site exhibition, “Measure Twice Cut Once,” La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027 (November). https://laluzdejesus.com/

Description: The joy of collecting can encompass the legal (or illegal) acquisition of cultural artifacts. Fetishism, such as the acquisition and display of cute (kawaii) Japanese figurines, can also involve joyful collecting.

2024 Art Historian and Taming the Rainbow, Honorable Mention Awards, “8th COLOR,” International Juried Competition, Teravarna Art Gallery, online, 7095 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028 (September-October), https://www.teravarna.com/winners-2024-color-8

Descriptions: 1) Art Historian: A commentary on the triangulation of landscape (nature, color), paint (color, palette, studio), and art history (color theory and publications). An artist negotiates multiple mediations: subject, paint or media, and critical reception, all of which shape a work of art which then becomes a subject-object of the field of art history; 2) Taming the Rainbow: Representing the joy of visibility, the smeary rainbow is “captured” and “tamed”, defining opaque windows and bodily forms alike. The woman bursts out of her shadowy form establishing her vivid presence in rainbow colors.

2024 Kintsugi (Golden Joinery), “THE2ND HALF, 2024 (50+),” Las Lagunas Gallery Juried Online Show, 6-28 June.

Description: Kintsugi: Gareki (Tsunami Debris) Series. This watercolor and the series were inspired by the massive earthquake/tsunami/nuclear reactor meltdown in NE Japan, March 2011. Kintsugi (“golden joinery”) refers to the Japanese process of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold.

2024 Beam Me Over, “Fantasy,” ARC Online Gallery, San Francisco (catalogue, 11 May-8 June), https://www.arc-sf.com.

Description:  A collage exploring planetary connectivity from telecom shops in the global south to research stations in Antarctica, with a nod to teleportation in Star Trek which involves the disassembly (disconnection) and reassembly (reconnection) of molecules.

2024 Girl’s Pipedreams and Silk Nuts,”Interplay,” Collage Artists of America, Juried National Online Exhibition (1 April-31 May, https://sfvacc.org/).

Descriptions: 1) Girl’s Pipedreams: A tokonoma (alcove)-inspired layout. Pipedreams constitute an interplay of dreams and reality checks. A girl seems squashed by her randoseru, the required backpack of elementary school students in Japan, as she bends to examine a vine. The same vine curls around the feet of a demure older (future?) sculpted self, contemplating a flower. The schoolgirl’s sculpted self, minus the backpack, is squatting on the right. Is she dreaming of flying away somewhere? Framing a plane in the open sky, the old-fashioned stove pipe fixed to the hanging scroll (with its trendy mounting), symbolizes her dreams going up in smoke; 2) Silk Nuts: A mandala-like interplay of silkworm cocoons and metal screws cradled in outstretched hands. The shadow “propellers” turn the Silk Nuts mandala and generate a centripetal movement. At the same time, the arms thrust out in the four cardinal directions, creating linear forces away from the center. The tension keeps the fragile, airy cocoons and the chunky metal screws in a precarious balance.

2024 Crisis of Faith, “All Things Considered,” Las Lagunas Art Gallery Juried Online Show,  4-30 April.

2024 Resignation – Brutalism Series, Annual CVG Juried Show, Three Dimensional Art Category, Collective Visions Gallery, 331 Pacific Avenue. Bremerton, WA 98337 (13 January-23 February). Reception, 13 January, 4:00-7:00 p.m. (view the exibition and video).

2023 Beam Me Over, “Connections,” Collage Artists of America, Juried National Online Exhibition (1 November-30 December, https://sfvacc.org/). Online reception, 4 November 2023, 5:00-7:00 p.m. PST (view the exhibit).

Description:  A collage exploring planetary connectivity from telecom shops in the global south to research stations in Antarctica, with a nod to teleportation in Star Trek which involves the disassembly (disconnection) and reassembly(reconnection) of molecules.

2023 All in a Day’s Work, “Heroes and Villains,” 16th Annual Juried Art Show, Columbia City Gallery, 4864 Rainier Avenue S., Seattle, WA 98118 (9 August – 24 September). Reception 12 August, 5-7 p.m.

2023 Cyclical Satori, Honorable Mention Award, Collage Artists of America, Juried National Exhibition, Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center, 1100 W Clark Ave, Burbank, CA 91506 (5-25 May)

2023 Cyclical Satori and Which Way to Face,”Pushing Boundaries,” Collage Artists of America, Juried National Exhibition, Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center, 1100 W Clark Ave, Burbank, CA 91506 (5-25 May)

Descriptions: 1) Cyclical Satori: An image representing the push-pull of boundaries of life (color) and death (shadow), in which emergent enlightenment is approached from two directions (clockwise, counterclockwise) and/or/both by moving up or down, in endlessly rotating cycles. There are, ultimately, no boundaries, whether spatial or directional; 2) Which Way to Face: In Meiji (1868-1912) Japan, modernization included experiments with fashion. Elite men cut their topknots and wore suits, while elite women, including the empress, were obliged to “face” to both the “East” (Japan) and the “West” (W. Europe/USA) depending on the occasion or event. Official business called for “western” attire, domestic affairs called for kimono. Which way to “face” alludes to the daily navigation and negotiation of cosmetic and sartorial boundaries and identities. This collage is broadly symbolic of the visual politics of contested appearance and identities way beyond Meiji Japan.

2022 Lollypop Baton,“Blackout” (Artwork that features dominant black or simply features black in a prominent way.) Second Annual Juried Exhibition, Art on 30^th, 4434 30th Street, San Diego, CA 92116 (29 October – 2 December, in the gallery and online (https://www.arton30th.com/)

2022 Art Historian and Which Way to Face,“Internal Dialogues,” Collage Artists of America, Juried National Online Exhibition (1-30 November, https://sfvacc.org/)

Descriptions: 1) Art Historian: A commentary on the triangulation of landscape (nature), paint (palette, studio), and art history (academic theories and publications). An artist negotiates multiple mediations: subject, paint or media, and critical reception, all of which shape a work of art which then becomes a subject-object of the field of art history; 2) Which Way to Face (see 2023 “Pushing Boundaries” above)

2022  Elephant in the Room, Second Place Award, “Mixed Metaphors,” Collage Artists of America, Juried International Online Open Exhibition.

2022 Elephant in the Room, In Search Of… and Shall We Dance, “Mixed Metaphors,” Collage Artists of America, Juried International Online Open Exhibition (1-30 April, https://sfvacc.org/)

Descriptions: 1) Elephant in the Room: “Literalization” of a common axiom, in this case, the elephant’s presence is noticed unlike its unacknowledged status in the axiom; 2) In Search Of…: Ambivalent hybridities–human-nonhuman, nature-culture, grounded-airborne, walk-fly, earth-cosmos, aimless-directed, heart-mind; 3): Shall We Dance: Headlessness as hopefulness, facelessness as resignation. The colorful rainbow, blue sky visible but blocked by drab urban blight. Feral dogs howl, a couple waltzes, a worker trudges on rain-soaked cement.

2021  Female Gaze, First Place Award, “Picking Up the Pieces,” Collage Artists of America, Juried International Online Open Exhibition

2021 Myself in Times of Trouble and Female Gaze, “Picking Up the Pieces,” Collage Artists of America, Juried International Online Open Exhibition (1-30 November, https://sfvacc.org/)

Descriptions: 1) Myself in Times of Trouble: Hatching the ghosts in the shells, and moving onward and upward; Female Gaze: The intersectional and inter-referential female gaze, East and West, past and present.

2021 Lollypop Baton and Transitions, “Parallel Dimensions,” Collage Artists of America, Juried Online Open Exhibition (1-28 February, https://collageartists.org/exhibits)

2016 Art Historian, “Altered States,” Collage Artists of America, Juried National Open Exhibition.

2016 Caprice – Public Icon Series, Michigan Water Color Society (MWCS) Traveling Exhibition.

2016 Caprice – Public Icon Series, Michigan Water Color Society (MWCS) 69th Annual Exhibition.

2015 Dangerous Liaisons – Public Icon Series, National Watercolor Society (NWS) 95th Annual Members Exhibition.

2013  Gareki (Debris) Gardens – Gareki (Debris) Series, Daniel Smith Merchandise Award, Michigan Water Color Society, 66th Annual Exhibition and Traveling Exhibition.

2012 Earthquake Craquelure – Gareki (Debris) Series, Michigan Water Color Society (MWCS) 65th Annual Exhibition.

2011 Daylight Savings Time, Michigan Water Color Society (MWCS) 64th Annual Exhibition and Traveling Exhibition.

2010 End of Empire, Arbor Art Center Annual Juried All Media Exhibition.

2009 Bird’s Eye – Post-postwar Japan Series, Michigan Water Color Society (MWCS) 62nd Annual Exhibition and Traveling Exhibition.

2008 And So It Goes, Loretta Sailors Honorarium Award,  Michigan Water Color Society (MWCS) 61st Annual Exhibition and Traveling Exhibition.

2008 Once Upon A Time (watercolor) and Faustian Handshake (oil), Ann Arbor Art Center Annual Juried All Media Exhibition.