By Barbara A. Preston | July 21, 2022
Japanese painter Minako Ota is displaying a selection of her animal and nature paintings at Princeton Public Library through August 30.
Ota lives in Montgomery Township by the Princeton border. She was born in Osaka, Japan and studied traditional Japanese painting at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Upon graduation, she attended Cambridge University in England where she focused on Western painting conservation. Since she left her native country some 30 years ago, she has submerged herself in western cultures in the US and Europe.
Her artwork is a cultural hybrid between Japan and the West, as she combines western painting techniques that she learned through her 20-plus years as a professional painting conservator and traditional Japanese aesthetics that she grew up with.
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Minako started painting marine creatures in spring 2020, when COVID-19 became a serious threat in the US. People were being challenged not only in health and economic aspects, but so many others as well, such as social, political, racial, spiritual. She started creating this series with the hope to inspire people to live more fully and joyously, no matter their circumstances. “Life began in the oceans and we are still a part of this amazing living ecosystem, connected by this vast body of water” she said.
More information on Minako Ota can be found online. Visit her website at www.minako-art.com.
