
STORY TELLERS
Mariko Ando
Naoko Takenouchi
May 22 to June 7, 2025
Tues. to Sat. Noon to 5 pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 24 2 to 4 pm
MARIKO ANDO ARTIS STATEMENT
“Why Etching Print?”
When I was an art student, I learned copperplate engraving in class. It is a tedious process of making a metal plate, digging in the design, filling it with ink, and printing it out with a press. However, I was fascinated by the tasteful lines that pen drawings could not produce.
After coming to Vancouver, I met Malaspina Printmaking Studio and my printmaking career began. The interaction with so many friendly and wonderful artists was truly worth it.
“Why Rabbit?”
That question always troubles me.
A Rabbit showed up in my dream one day. It’s true. Then I started to draw them.
I don’t know anymore why I draw rabbits. My hand moves and I draw two long ear creatures automatically.
“New medium - Oil Painting”
I usually do etching printmaking. I started oil painting few years ago because I always wanted to try it. I didn’t before because of the strong chemical smell and I didn’t have the budget to rent a studio for it.That’s until I found that there are better materials now.
Thanks to technology. A new challenge is always fun.
So , now my rabbits are living in a puffy colorful world. I still love to do etching print making. I'm enjoying the very opposite technique of painting and printmaking.
“I wonder what art means to me.
I think about it.”
The world seems to be running with something stuck in its gears,
I may have a lot of thoughts, but I can't do something great like painting a precise message and appealing to people.
I can't do something great like appealing to people by painting a precise message.
For me, drawing has been as natural as breathing since I was a child.
I get a great sense of satisfaction when I am able to paint something that is close to the image I have imagined.
I must have been a strange child when I was a young.
I liked to paint alone at home. I was thrilled when my mother would go out and leave me alone.
It was because I could concentrate on my painting. Even if I invited my friends over, I would draw silently and show them what I had done.
We were not allowed to look at each other's work until it was done. It was a nuisance to my friends who were forced to follow these strange rules.
I have lived for more than half a century. As I get older, my tastes seem to return to those of my childhood.
My gaze returns to my feet again, and I come to love the soil and be moved by the way plants grow, bear fruit, and decay.
I have come to understand a little more about the influence of various microorganisms and the environment on the process of regeneration. I have recently been composting soil, which is a good analogy. I now know how wonderful the earthworms in the ground are and how great they are, something I had never paid attention to before.
Invisible forces, small materials that we don't need are necessary in the natural world.
I am sure that art is like that.
I hope that my paintings gently touch something deep in the hearts of those who see them and bring a little smile to their faces.
Mariko Ando was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. In 1999 moved from Japan to Vancouver, Canada.
30+years experience as a freelance Illustrator and Printmaker. Ando is most recently working on oil paintings as well.
A member of Malaspina Printmakers Society(Vancouver) since 2002.
Ando’s work is exhibited throughout Canada, USA, AU and Japan. Recent Exhibitions at The 14th Moon Gallery(Osaka,Japan), VISUALSPCAE Gallery(Vancouver), Davidson Galleries(Seattle), Liss Gallery(Toronto),Gallery TOGA(Okayama,Japan),Vancouver International Airport, Big Print Project and participated the Vancouver Mural Festival in 2021(Curated). All were very successful.
Naoko Takenouchi Artist Statement
In the last few years, I have been thinking about my desire to live close to nature and to be in touch with both my senses and my inner voice.
From ancient time, earthlings have been guided by the rhythm of nature. Our senses and intuition have become our survival instincts to navigate our way through a very delicate and fragile balance. Migratory birds continue to fly several thousands of miles every year to find food and nesting sites. They have a very precise navigational system that is part of their survival instinct. This journey is both astonishing and mysterious to me.
Living in an advanced technological and materialistic society for such a long time, I think we have lost contact with these instincts. However, when I think about the creative process, it is about listening to my inner voice and navigating my way through my senses. In this, there is something quite similar to the migration of wildlife.
Today we live in a society with anxiety and uncertainty. Somehow, I feel that our soul and our body should be closer and find a more harmonious relationship with our own inner world as much as with the outer world. Perhaps, that power within us may be able to guide us to a new path.
Naoko Takenouchi's work explores the issues of presence, identity and our relationship between society and nature.
Since she immigrated to Canada in 1993, her creative expression using glass became a significant way of her navigating her path in this journey. It is also an important bridge between her inner world and society.
Takenouchi completed a four-year degree course in design and glassblowing at Tama Art University in Tokyo, while taking time to attend the New York Experiment Glass Workshop. Her work experience continued at the Swedish Center Foundation and in the New-Small & Sterling Studio in Vancouver. She has attended the Pilchuck Glass School as a scholarship student in '93 and '98. She has exhibited her work world-wide, and her work was included in New Glass Review 16, Contemporary Glass: Color, Light & Form from Guild Publishing, and many other national and international publications. Takenouchi has received numerous awards in Canada and was invited to be one of the jury members for the Saidye Bronfman Award in 2002 and 2022. She was commissioned to make the Governor General's Performing Art's Awards from 2003 to 2022.