Nishiki Sugawara-Beda b. 1973 — Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese American visual artist based in painting and installation. The artmaking process of Nishiki Sugawara-Beda requires prior mental preparation to achieve a meditative quality in her paintings. She draws upon her Japanese heritage to explore themes related to culture, language, and spirituality rooted in Zen Buddhism. Her inspiration is Zen artist and monk Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) recognized for a quick and evocative manner to express his religious views and playful attitude. Gibon’s statement that his “play with brush and ink is not calligraphy nor painting” reflects the Buddhist concept of emptiness as an expression for the ultimate truth. 

Connecting across space and time, she experiments in ancient Japanese materials and techniques including Sumi ink, Kakejiku landscapes, and rice paper, to merge them with abstract and expressive forms familiar to the modern Western aesthetic. By using ink Sugawara-Beda, discovered a more authentic expression of her personal feelings, a process that she described as kokoro no naka kara or ‘from the heart.’ The idea of bridging the spiritual world with the material one gives form to what arises from within. For example, she produces her own material of sumi ink made from soot and animal glue to return to the origins of traditional ink making and creates a link with the spirit of the object. Through a personal journey in this creative process, she connects with the heart and then transmits that feeling to paper and wood substrates. This approach appeals to Sugawara-Beda who cultivated her mindfulness to mark-making by engaging in such traditional Japanese activities as chadō (“the way of tea”), ikebana (“arranging flowers”), or shodō (“the way of writing” or calligraphy).

Sugawara-Beda exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions and offers lectures nationally and internationally to promote cultural diversity and exchange. Exhibition venues include NorthPark Center, Dallas, TX; the Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg, SC; Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA; Dennos Museum, Traverse City, MI; and Amos Eno Gallery, New York, NY. Publications include New American Paintings; Expose Art Magazine; AEQAI; Athenaeum Review; and the London Post. Awards including a Seed Grant; Diversity Fellow Program; International Enhancement Grant; Idaho Arts Fellowship; Sam Taylor Fellowship; and Tusen Takk Foundation residency have supported her artistic research. In 2022, The Dallas Museum of Art acquired four scrolls, representing the four seasons, for their permanent collection. In addition to national conferences, including the College Art Association, Sugawara-Beda also gives keynote speeches and workshops to cultural organizations including Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Inc., OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Business Council for the Arts, Dallas.