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AD 130 | Yumi Sakugawa x JDH
“A Polymath’s Approach To Creativity, Balance, And Meditation”




YUMI SAKUGAWA is an Ignatz Awards nominated comic book artist and the author of I THINK I AM IN FRIEND-LOVE WITH YOU and YOUR ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO BECOMING ONE WITH THE UNIVERSE. Her comics have also appeared in The Believer, Bitch, the Best American Non­Required Reading 2014, The Rumpus, Folio, Fjords Review, and other publications. She has also exhibited multimedia installations at the Japanese American National Museum and the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building. A graduate from the fine art program of University of California, Los Angeles, she lives in Los Angeles.



Show Notes: 
  • Drawing, writing, meditation, performance art, and engagement in multiple creative disciplines as an artistic practice and career.
  • Being an extroverted introvert or an “ambivert”.
  • Growing up as an Asian American student in both American and Japanese academic systems.
  • Stream of consciousness and dream logic.
  • Using meditation to supplement her mental health.
  • How her meditation surfaces in her work visually.
  • Rediscovering “fun” in the creative process.
  • Using humor as a vehicle to explore and express darker subject matter.
  • The importance of being a female Asian American artist under the projective narratives of both American and Asian patriarchy. 
  • The fetishization of Asian American artists and women.
  • Her part in helping other Asian American woman artists achieve visibility.
  • Mental health, personal boundaries, and keeping a balance in her personal relationships and art practice.
  • Giving herself permission to take the time needed to slow down in order to be creative.

www.yumisakugawa.com

Posted 09.25.2019