About Nora

Wind, light, and stone.  Ridge lines and erosion. The gestures of clouds and trees and the quiet of desert fans. Always the horizon.

My work arises from a feeling I often have when encountering a vista of exceptional beauty: a longing to touch what is far away and mysterious, that is perhaps universal.

The images are evocations of place, refracted through my senses and cultural and personal affinities – in particular, the recognition of a boundless presence that permeates the natural world. Longing for the far away and mysterious is really a longing to learn and connect: human impulses that, for me, are the essence of the creative process.

Born in Japan to a family of artists, I lived as a child in Japan, India, Nepal, Mexico, Canada, and the Unites States. I have been creating art from a young age and studied drawing and painting in college with Nathan Oliveira, among others.  Payahuunadü (the Paiute name for the Owens Valley) has been my home for the past several years.  I have been a printmaker for over two decades, specializing in viscosity monotypes and also recently began painting after a long hiatus.  These two mediums bring out my creative vision in very different ways due to their inherent physical characteristics and processes. Yet in both mediums I am still responding to the same stimuli and feelings – namely, the overpowering  presence of nature that is the defining aspect of daily life here in the eastern Sierra.  

Selected exhibitions

2023 Imprints of Nature, Solo Exhibition, Mono Arts Council, Mammoth Lakes CA

2022 Solo Exhibition, C5 Studios Community Art Center, Bishop CA

2019 Regional Collective: California Society of Printmakers at the Janet Turner Print Museum, Chico CA

2018 Points of Departure, California Society of Printmakers, Bridge Artspace, Richmond CA

2018 California Centered: Printmaking Exhibition, Merced Multicultural Art Center, Merced CA

2016 Dreams and the Imagination, Group Exhibition Merced College Art Gallery, Merced CA

2015 California Society of Printmakers: CA, LA and Beyond, Grayloft Gallery, Oakland CA

2014 Solo Exhibition, Alta Bates Community Art Gallery, Berkeley CACity of Berkeley Civic Art Exhibition

Public Collections and Major Commissions

Hayward Public Library, Hayward California
UC Davis Medical Center, Davis California
Alameda County Arts Commission – Series of works for Highland Hospital, 2015
Alameda County Art Collection
San Francisco Arts Commission, 2010 & 2014
Kaiser Permanente – Sacramento, Roseville & Vallejo campuses
Innate Chiropractic, Albany CA

Education/Experience

2002-2004Studio 1509, Berkeley CA – Monoprint Workshop1979-1984Stanford University, BA in English with extensive additional course work completed in Studio Art with Nathan Oliveira, Frank Lobdell and others.