Susan Sakamoto: Boro

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Susan Sakamoto

Susan Sakamoto, "Remembered Birdsong"

In her most recent bodies of work, local artist Susan Sakamoto delves into the deeper mysteries of life through personal and family history. Using multiple layers of paint and other media, and generations of original family documents, Sakamoto’s process is akin to that of the Japanese patchwork technique, boro. Stemming from economic necessity, boro clothing embodies a record of generations of use, and the beauty of impermanence and imperfection. Sakamoto’s courageously experimental process of adding, covering, uncovering, obscuring and revealing yields complex and highly felt works which are simultaneously delicate and detailed, tough and physical, evoking the ongoing enigmas of memory and familial life.

Raised in High River and Calgary, Alberta, Susan Sakamoto was influenced by growing up in the paint business, which provided a great respect for the craft of painting, and conversations about the technical aspects of paint and colour. She lives and works in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where she has maintained an art practice in painting and encaustic for several decades. She has exhibited in Alberta, British Columbia, and Italy, and her work is held in private and corporate collections in Canada, the United States, Japan and Europe, as well as Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.