CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) is pleased to announce “Whispering Lights,” an exhibition of art work by Erika Mizukami.

Finding inspiration in light, she began making art on her own and is self-taught. So far, she has made more than 100 works in this way. We selected about 10 works from all, and will show them at CRS. The works represented here are colorful oil pastels in complex patterns, created by scratching, reminiscent of mandalas. Their purpose is to invite unity and harmony into the mind and also a sense of playfulness.

An Opening Reception with the artist will take place on Saturday, July 11, 2015 from 6 – 8 pm.  Pianist Maurizio Najt will perform

The exhibition will remain on display through August 17, 2015.

About the Artist

Born in New York and raised in Tokyo, Erika Mizukami has been drawing since 2010.

After experiencing self-hypnosis and guided meditation several years ago, Erika started experiencing beautiful visions every night as she was lying down. Images were like the ones in a kaleidoscope, vast, spacious, unlimited, smooth, a continuation of simple motifs within a slow movement. She was fully aware of her surroundings, never tired from sleepless nights, leaving her with a clear mind and emotional detachment.

Fully connected with the presence of Love, Freedom, and Stillness, Erika explored the idea of capturing these images and wanted to share with others not only the images but the senses of healing she had in the experience. Drawing them on a sketchbook with a pencil was not an accurate way of sharing them.

A year after, she met a Mandala artist who recommended to her a book on how to draw a mandala. The instructions of drawing were so complicated for Erika, so she placed the mandala interactions away and started playing with a compass to draw one simple circle in many ways. She loved it! However it was not quite yet able to reflect her visions.

During the same year Erika took a course on Metaphysical Science. She had an assignment of expressing emotions in art. She picked oil pastels to do the project. It struck her! Since then she uses oil pastels and compass to draw the images. “When I scratched off the line, the color appears underneath of black coated paper. It’s like the light appears in the dark.”

Even though her artwork does not exactly mirror the images she sees in her mind, “What I have experienced with drawing these particular artworks is far beyond my imagination. I just took inspired action every each moment to create shape and even choosing color.â€_

These artworks are teaching and guiding Erika in so many different aspects of understanding meaning in life and leading her to the original pure essence. When she completes a piece, she looks at it with completely detachment, neither like nor dislike, leaving her for a couple of days with an empty mind, no sense of judgment but deep love and joy!

Relationship with all my creation is just being a witness of a process of unfolding flowers. When you see beauty in nature you go speechless, with no words to express, a kind of shock, all thoughts and emotions become powerless and fade a way and I replace them with total acceptance, being fully connected with something beyond my five senses

Realizing that her art invites the viewers to the experience of reuniting with the universe as a whole, Erika has been creating her artworks for people across any boundaries.

“Creativity enriches my life. I love to inspire people and let them know how life is enjoyable just by taking a little time with the creativity we are all born with!”

Artist Statement

The process of creating my work is one of returning myself back to the original nothingness. Choosing motifs, colors, and patters for each little step of drawing in a long, simple repetition is made possible when I perceive a subtle and quiet inspiration coming from within. In drawing, I let self-talk bubble up to consciousness from the innermost realm within, and gently liberate each of them into the light.

Once the work is finished, I realize that I have been experiencing the authentic nothingness. Which means no words, no critiques, no voices, and no emotions emerge from my work toward me when seeing it for a couple of days after the completion. It seems as if a physical relationship between “meâ€_the creator and my work the created, which had been supporting the process of my creation, reveals its real nature:  the original nothingness.

After the experience of nothingness, my consciousness gradually returns to the world of words and emotions where my work visually expresses its beauty.

Every time I finish my work, I deeply feel that my creative process strengthens the mutual trust between my Self and what’s beyond my Self, namely divinity. Not only my finished work but every little piece of the work, every event I went through in the process of creating it, every color, and every figure outside the work now tell me the truth of the universe in a totally different way. The entire universe, including my work and myself, plays a role as catalyst to enrich the bond, or a mutual trust, between me and what leads me to create my works. This bond, the trust, is an experience of oneness between my singularity and the entire universe. My works are a series of invitations to this oneness.