Analog and digital. Improvisation and Iteration. Tradition vs. innovation… I have always existed with dualities. Growing up biracial in small town Northern Wisconsin, I was culturally isolated but had the privilege of visiting extended family in Japan. Art kept me in touch with my Asian roots and became a tool for personal exploration of my family’s history. Exploring the interplay between East and West has given me the opportunity to better understand both cultures and create something uniquely hybrid.

My youth additionally coincided with society’s transition from an analog to a digital world. In hindsight, I feel very fortunate to have grown up in this period. I feel my generation can shift between different realities with an ease that others may not possess. I feel this has benefited my art greatly because while I love technology I am wary of overdependence on machines. 

Perhaps it’s no surprise that nature and technology are my two main inspirations; these themes have always fascinated Asian cultures. As societal coexistence with nature has never been more vital to our existence, my growth as an artist has led me to change what I make and how I make it, which includes a conscious exploration of sustainable mediums like paper.

But I believe it is my Japanese-American heritage and use of subtlety with a uniquely biracial aesthetic that sets me apart. 

Combining studies of traditional Japanese art with modern process and content, my work seeks to address a post-globalized world as well as my own personal biracial history. Using the aesthetic of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, I combine anachronisms and layers of homage to explore cultural dualities. In doing so, I feel like I am part of a centuries-old artistic discourse that has long addressed lineage, obsolescence, and appropriation. 

Ukiyo-e was one of the first mass-produced forms of pop art, and the same woodblock design was often used with different color applications to achieve a variety of prints. Using the modern process of stencils and spray paint, I pursue a similar modularity amid repetition in both color and form. Producing variations of the same design allows for ‘play’ in the grey area between uniformity and singularity. I believe addressing the nature of individuality within a system is both a response to cultural homogeneity and a fundamental concern of 21st-century existence.

Wakuda (Wha-Koo-Dah) is my Japanese family name; I use a hybrid of my family kamon as both an iconic branding image and a way to honor my past. Exploring the nature of Ukiyo-e and the interplay between Japan and America has given me the opportunity to better understand both cultures and create something for the future.

Growing up Asian in the homogenous Midwestern United States meant that I was keenly aware of my cultural and aesthetic differences from an early age. Regular visits to my mother’s native Kyoto helped me keep in touch with my Japanese roots and planted the seed of the art I create today.