An art journey shaped by color, travel and light...

In the past few years, my husband, Larry, and I were fortunate enough to travel to Japan and Italy, the two countries my ancestors are from.

During my travels, I visited many art museums, from the Benesse on Naoshima Island in Japan, which features Yayoi Kusama’s world famous polka dot art, to the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, where you can view Michelangelo’s original 17 foot masterpiece, David. I have also traveled by water taxi from Venice to the island of Murano, which is considered a gold standard of artistic glassmaking, and visited the Czech Republic, which is also known internationally for its high quality Bohemian glass. When I visited I. M. Pei’s iconic glass Louvre Pyramid in Paris, I thought it was beautiful during the daytime, but when lit at night, it was simply breathtaking. I also visited many large and small museums along my journey, and I appreciated every one of them.

Being raised in a richly diverse household, I naturally gravitated toward art and creativity. My mother, Hisako, produced beautiful oil paintings and was gifted in the art of Ikebana, the minimalist Japanese style of flower arrangement. My sister, Mary, is a gifted ceramic sculptor whose art includes oversized sculptures of everyday items and detailed figures of people such as geishas and Cactus Boy. My father, Alfonso, while not a visual artist, had a distinguished military career and was a talented musician who played musical instruments by ear. My husband, Larry, is a professional musician.

Although I’ve been exposed to a wide variety of art, from the Italian Renaissance to Japanese woodblock prints, I have always been drawn to contemporary art and clean, minimalist lines, with glass as my medium of choice. I love the texture of glass, how it glistens in the sun, its multitude of colors, and the many varieties of glass, including transparent and opaque. In short, I just love glass!

I hope you enjoy my VETRO art pieces as much as I enjoyed creating them.