Bleue

Jennifer Jean Okumura

“Bleue”— my heart feels two things, intensely and at the same time, for the needed conversations and actions taking place around the injustices and inequities we’ve all seen and have been talking about of late. My first feeling is, as I’m sure it has been for all of us, intense pain – for lives lost, for opportunities cut short, for the systemic problems that our country at times makes only halting progress towards addressing. But my heart also feels intense hope as we change with the world. This is our task as Artists—as humans and I can’t think of a group of practicing Artists better equipped to take this on.

Our face of ours is revealed

Jennifer Jean Okumura

Art and its ability to elevate people inspire me and how I perceived 2020 and into 2021 felt like every day for creatives. On some level, art is life—telling a story or simply creating is our life. As artists, we are in tune with the activity of those, both past and present, who push the envelope to the maximum of what is defined as art. Life’s honest words can best be summed up in a line by Jorge Luis Borges (from “Dreamtigers”), “Art must be like that mirror, that reveals to us this face of ours.” Our open and honest imagery and words were a way to express oneself – it was vital, not just therapeutic. It revealed our thirst for world stories never told – this became a mission and the essence of our heartfelt narratives of resilience, healing, solidarity, and freedom.