I would like to introduce you to our host while we are here in New York.  I have known and followed the work of Makoto Fujimura (Mako) for over 15 years.  I can safely say that he has had more to do with my concept of creating culture and the formation of my vision than any other human.

YouTube Feature

Here is an edited version of his official bio:

He was born in 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated from Bucknell University in 1983, and received an M.F.A. from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1989. His thesis painting was purchased by the university and he was invited to study in the Japanese Painting Doctorate program, a first for an outsider to this prestigious traditional program.

It was during the six and a half years of studying in Japan that Fujimura began to assimilate the combinations of abstract expressionism explored in the US with the traditional Japanese art of Nihonga. Upon his return to the US, he began to exhibit his paintings in New York City, and was honored in 1992 as the youngest artist ever to have had a piece acquired by Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

Fujimura has become an authority on the nature and cultural assessment of beauty, by both creating it and exploring its forms. His paintings address the creative process and explore what it means to see. The work moves the observer from cognitive categorization to visceral experience.

In 1990, Fujimura founded The International Arts Movement. IAM hosts a major conference in New York City every February, attracting notable speakers and performers such as Dana Gioia (poet, Chair of NEA), Patricia Heaton (actor), Rob Mathes Band, Miroslav Volf (theologian, Yale University) and Elaine Scarry (author, Harvard University).

Most recently, Fujimura's work, The Splendor of the Medium, a collection of paintings formed of carefully stone-ground minerals including azurite, malachite and cinnabar, has been showcased in New York City.  Critic David Gelertner wrote in A Faithful Art: Makoto Fujimura and the redemption of abstract expressionism: "Makoto Fujimura's paintings are a joyful gusher from a well that had long run dry...(he is a) superb artist who does honor to the Japanese traditions he uses, and helps fan life back into several magnificent western traditions--traditions as new as abstract expressionism, as old as Christian art."

His works are represented by Sara Tecchia Roma Gallery in Chelsea, New York City as well as Sen Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. Public collections include The Saint Louis Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and the Time Warner/ AOL/ CNN building in Hong Kong. He was appointed to the National Council on the Arts, a six year Presidential appointment, in 2003.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Eric Gorski that outlines some of Mako’s worldview:

There are no crosses in Makoto Fujimura's paintings. No images of Jesus gazing into the distance, or serene scenes of churches in a snow-cloaked wood.

Fujimura's abstract works speak to his evangelical Christian faith. But to find it takes some digging.

After the 2001 terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center, three blocks from Fujimura's home, his work explored the power of fire to both destroy and purify, themes drawn from the Christian Gospels and Dante's "The Divine Comedy."

"I am a Christian," says Fujimura, 46, who founded the nonprofit International Arts Movement to help bridge the gap between the religious and art communities. "I am also an artist and creative, and what I do is driven by my faith experience.

"But I am also a human being living in the 21st century, struggling with a lot of brokenness - my own, as well as the world's. I don't want to use the term 'Christian' to shield me away from the suffering or evil that I see, or to escape in some nice ghetto where everyone thinks the same."

I have struggled here for about 15 minutes to compose an appropriate conclusion to this entry that would describe my appreciation for Mako and I just can’t.  He is a wonderfully humble man who is radically and beautifully living out his calling. Perhaps that is all I need to say.

— John Farkas