Passion provides energy that delights one’s life and allows one to overcome obstacles. Moreover, passion invites one into their inner world to enjoy and relax. This experience is very valuable, but in my life, I have seen people criticizing one’s passion and love. Those who are criticized by others leave their passion behind and spend their life that they didn’t wish for. This type of situation in society is starting to disappear; however, it is still happening. To make more spaces for people to focus on their passion, I want to encourage them by introducing my passion: abstract expressionism and anime culture.
I have arrived at this concept from my personal experience. I was criticizing myself. In my high school life, I gave up my dream to become an artist and left my passion behind. This is because I thought it was impossible to become an artist (because I wasn’t skilled enough compared with other students), to be paid as an artist, and to live a wealthy/stable life.
One day in my spare time, I went to the bookstore to buy some manga books. In that bookstore, I found a book that explains how to draw anime-style digital illustrations. When I saw one of the illustrations in that book, I was fascinated and excited to be in the beautiful world. Even though I gave up on my dream, my heart was thrilled, and that was a moment when I wanted to see my dream again, not only as a career but as my life-spending passion.   
After I started to get back on the art path, I found that I also like abstract expressionist painting, which also invites the viewer into a unique artistic experience.  My life was full of excitement at UCB, especially when I found to combine abstract expressionism and anime culture into one painting. 
My artwork provides a similar feeling when I see anime illustrations and abstract expressionism paintings, both of which represent my cultural identity. In my case, I was criticizing myself, but in the real world, people criticize others. Criticizing by stereotypes of thinking and bias hurts feelings, and this happens all around the world, especially in Japan. For example, some people see Otaku (meaning nerds in Japanese) negatively. Even though the situation in society is becoming better, people who are criticized cannot follow their passion/love because some environments prefer stereotyped/biased norms. As a Japanese American artist who experiences different open-minded perspectives from different global environments,  I want to provide opportunities for the viewers to continue what they love and to find the excitement that fulfills their lives. 
This work was exhibited in “Between Now and Then: Senior Thesis Exhibition” at University of California, Berkeley, Worth Ryder Art Gallery.