WIND FROM THE EAST

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Paintings by Michiyo Mizuuchi

Ceramics by Yang-ja Lee

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Michiyo Mizuuchi’s acrylic paintings are influenced by two of her art teachers, the late Helen Corning of Yellow Barn Studio, MD and Marsha Staiger of the Art League in Alexandria, VA.  From Helen she learned that the essence of art is “simplicity and elegance “, an idea that resonates with the “wabi-sabi concept of Japanese Zen philosophy. And from Marsha she learned beautiful color harmony and many other technics including collage. She is striving to achieve these elements in her paintings. She is a signature member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society (BWS). One of her paintings (“Kabuki” in our post card) won the Board Memorial Award at the 2018 Mid Atlantic Regional Watercolor Annual Juried Exhibition by the BWS.

(www.baltimorewatercolorsociety.org)

 

Yang-ja Lee’s pieces are strongly influenced by traditional Japanese pottery, and reflect her love of the Japanese tea culture (both everyday tea and ceremonial tea).  Most of her pieces are either wood-fired or soda/wood-fired, which often adds subtle and unobtrusive beauty or “shibui” to her work. She used to belong to Glen Echo Pottery, but moved to Anne Arundel County and now is a member of the Muddy Creek Artists Guild (muddycreekartistsguild.org) and SoCo Arts Lab (artslab-sc.org).

Most of her pieces can be viewed online: flickr.com/photos/yangjalee

 

Michiyo and Yang-ja were born and grew up in Japan, came to the US decades ago and have been working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as research scientists (YJ retired 2018).  Even though they started art as a hobby, it has become as important for them as their day jobs.  This exhibit is their third joint show with the same title.  The first one was held at Orchard Gallery, Bethesda, in 2009, and the second one was at the Waverly Street Gallery in 2016.