Lucy ARAI

Born: 1956, in Tokyo
Medium: sashiko stitching, sumi ink, metal leaf & indigo pigment on handmade paper

Lucy Arai fuses East and West, old and new, to create artwork that transforms tradition. With graduate work in both ceramic sculpture and museum practices at the University of Michigan, she has developed a unique artistic medium. Lucy combines Western art training with traditional Japanese thread work and brush painting. In recognition of her creativity, she became a finalist in the 2005 Lewis C. Tiffany Foundation biennial awards. And in 2006 she was artist-in-residence at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum.

An uncle in Tokyo taught Lucy sashiko during the 1970s. It is a quilting and embroidery technique using running stitches to create intricate designs. In Japan it is most often seen as white thread on a deep blue indigo-dyed cotton fabric. From patching, quilting and mending humble work clothes, sashiko evolved into a complex decorative art form. The artist has been practicing this stitchery as a daily meditation for over 45 years.

Sumi-e is traditional brush painting. 3000 years ago in China, a technique was developed to combine pine soot with water and glue to form a molded ink stick. Rubbing it on a stone with water produces a durable ink. Lucy has used this for her abstract designs, augmented by painting with indigo pigment. This is combined with intricate stitching using black, white, silver or gold thread. The application of silver and 18K gold leaf over very heavy hand-made papers results in pieces with a modern dynamism rooted in centuries-old traditions.

Titles for Lucy Arai's artwork come from traditional museum practice for the labeling of acquisitions:year number, object number, series number.

Selected Exhibitions:
Key West, FL
Ottawa, Canada
New York, NY
Rathenow, Germany
San Francisco, CA
Milwaukee, WI
US Department of State, Arts in the Embassies Program:
Hong Kong, Brunei, Djibouti
Santa Fe, NM
Cambridge, MA

Selected Collections:
IBM Corporation, Southfield, MI