Art Is
A Journey into the Light
How would we complete the thought, Art is . . . ? We might offer an academic definition or enthusiastically describe a favorite artwork. Then, perhaps, we would comment on how impossible it seems to place parameters on such a vast concept, so open-ended and mysterious.
In his new book, visual artist and arts advocate Makoto Fujimura acknowledges the existential idea (art exists) and suggests several ways to elaborate on the aforementioned question. His primary suggestion is apparent in the book’s subtitle, A Journey into the Light. Given his esteemed career as an artist and his education at Bucknell University and Tokyo University of the Arts, Fujimura could have written from a more scholarly or critical perspective. Instead, he chose to write a memoir-like book that reflects on how artmaking draws us back to humanity’s original light—the light of God.
Chapters 1 and 11 bookend Art Is with a walk to and from Fujimura’s studio. He situates art in ecosystems, such as his farm garden, a cultural estuary, and the history of Japanese art and aesthetics. Throughout the book, he invites us to listen to the reflections he’s gleaned from his vocation as an artist. A range of topics arises: Christian theology, contemporary art, literature and poetry, Japanese aesthetics, nihonga (Japanese art techniques), sado (the art of tea), nature, intercultural relationships, and personal narratives about faith and the arts.
