Shinohara, Noriko

Other Names: 篠原乃り子

"'When did I start my art?' Bob asked me.

"Like everybody, I don't remember when it was. Maybe, when I was one or two years old.

"In Japan, we always had arts program (visual art, music, and calligraphy) at school. But, when I was in the second year at the high school, we girls had to take the domestic science while all the boys were enjoying arts.I lead several girls and went to the [principal's] room. But he couldn't do anything, for this was the decision of the government's ministry of the culture. It was late [1960s], and like several countries of the Europe and [the] United [States], young people in Japan were fighting against the systems of the country.

"When I was 17 years old, I read 'L'etranger' by Camus. Since then I feel I stopped to grow, stopped to be old. Around that time I decided to become a painter. It was the reason I came this country when I was 19 years old, and still struggling to be here to paint.

"Unfortunately, I spent long time to raise my son and specially my husband, who is a well known but poor artist, since I was 20 years old, and also I couldn't stop writing, my career about art is quite short in spite of my age.

"I learned etching by chance when I was in Kyoto and Tokyo one month in 1995. Since then I found my world and my words, I stopped to be the apprentice of my husband. I started to learn to walk by myself. Maybe that is the time I started my art." --Noriko Shinohara, Artist Statement, December 5, 2002

Gallery of Selected Works

Golden Temple (2001) Homage to the World Trade Center (2001) Locker Room Series (2000) Locker Room Series III (1999) In A Cactus Grove (1998) Champagne on the Seine (1996) Stocking (1996) Jamaican Diary (1983) Let's Meet (1980)