Artist: Kiyomi Fukui
Exhibition: The Green Thumb Project
Media: six raised-bed planters, two tables that displayed plants in various stages of growth, accompanied by a faint audio recording of my voice describing the growth of the sprouts, one table that functioned as a paper-casting station, and a collaged printed work. The paper-casting station hosted an assortment of seed packets and a large glass container holding multiple sprouting paper-casted thumbs.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiyomimiz/
Website: http://www.kiyomifukui.com/the-green-thumb-project
Kiyomi Fukui is a Japanese- American artist who works and resides in Long Beach, California. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design form La Sierra University and her Master of Fine Arts in print making from CSU Long Beach. She also does a lot of print based work as well as participatory performance, for instance fiber arts like tatting or crocheting.
In her exhibit, the Green thumb project, she does an amazing job of turning simple plants and gardening into a complete art piece with meaning. For instance, she uses paper castings of thumbs and sprouts seeds out of them as well as displays the progress of their growth. Not only that but her gallery’s display was so monotone and simplistic yet if felt like it was complete at the same time. It gave great emphasis on the plants. Additionally, the muted earth tones compared with the white just gave the whole display a contrast and great balance as well.
Kiyomi is typically interested in things that are intangible and impermanent, like emotion or memories. And with this piece the whole project was inspired by a moment with her mother. Before her mother’s passing she created a mold of her thumb and that mold inspired her use of the paper castings where all the seeds sprout from. All in all I think that meaning is beautiful, especially how she used her personal loss to inspire a universal message within her work.
Honestly this piece has been very touching and heartfelt. Her inspiration from her departed mother has been very eyeopening to me. It has motivated myself to enjoy these moments with my loved ones a little more and to not hold on to them because all in all these are all intangible and impermanent things. We can’t hold onto or dwell on all these memories forever. And Kiyomi created a piece inspired by the touching moments instead of dwelling on what was which I genuinely admire a lot. I conclusion Kiyomi is an amazing artist and her pieces are both beautiful visually and emotionally.
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