Art Is

From a widely celebrated artist, this dazzling book takes readers on a profound journey into the heart of creativity When Makoto Fujimura painted as a child, he felt a mysterious electrical charge pass through him. Over decades of art making, writing, and reflecting in his studio, he has come to understand this charge as his Creatora source he connects with most profoundly when making art. To be human is to be creative, Fujimura believes, and art making is a discipline of awareness, prayer, and praise by which we journey back to our original light. In this book, Fujimura takes readers along on his meandering journey as an artist. We witness him making his process-driven slow artusing pulverized minerals, gold, or pigments made from oyster shellas he considers the plants and wildlife on the land where he lives. He draws on Japanese aesthetics, modernist art, Christian theology, sado (art of tea), literature, ecology, and personal narrative, with inspiration ranging from William Blakes poetry to the art of Mark Rothko and Josef Albers, and from the wisdom of Scripture and Japanese tea master Sen no Riky to the traditional Japanese painting technique called Nihonga. Bringing together the authors written reflections and his paintings, drawings, and photographs, Art Is invites us to see the world in prismatic and diverse lights, helping us navigate the fractured, divisive times we live in.