My work is often described as “Japanese.” I trace contours, layer planes, and let the boundaries between colors breathe — a structure that resonates with a sensibility valuing the relationship of one surface to another, rather than the illusion of depth through shadow or perspective. I treat fragments of leather as panels of color and let the stitches resound as single lines. Not mixing, but layering; not shadow, but arrangement. In this, I find my own necessity to make time and memory visible. The “Hanamaru,” in which flowers, butterflies, and birds are placed within a circle, is both a sign of continuity and an emblem of blessing. I seek to draw diverse movements of life into the circle and to stitch down their presence. When flowers bloom again from the membrane of leather, nature and human, memory and the present, come together. It is the seams and the spaces between them that form the very breath of this series.