Kumiko Matsushima
About Kumiko
Born in Tokyo. Graduated from Waseda University majoring in Economics. Worked for a record company. Worked as a freelance journalist. Moved to California. Obtained MBA from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Product Manager at Cartier Japan. Worked as an interpreter/translator between Japanese and English including bilingual voice-over for CNN News etc. Moved to NY in 1999. Being inspired by the magical beauty of New York City, she started painting one day. Being Admitted by Pratt Institute in 2003 majoring in painting. In 2005, graduated with Highest Honor. Returned to Japan in the same year, held 2 one-man-shows in Tokyo. Moved again to Hong Kong in 2009, she led busy days painting and taking photographs, participating in group shows, and organizing charity art events for the American Women's Association of Hong Kong until July 2020. Spent 5 months from August 2020 till January 2021 in Singapore studying Art Therapy at Lasalle College of the Arts for 3 months. Due to a family issue, she returned to Hong Kong in mid-January, 2021. In Singapore she was waiting for her husband to join her. There was a delay on her husband's move to Singapore due to several reasons including the COVID-19 Pandemic. Finally moved to Singapore with her husband in late April, 2021. Being fascinated by beautiful nature and architecture including shophouses and Marina Bay Sands, she started her new series of photographs, “Singapore Colours” following a successful series, “Hong Kong Colours.” Several one-man and group shows in New York City, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Won several awards on her painting and photographs.
Artist Statement
Ray Bradbury once said,
“We are an impossibility in an impossible world.”
Yes! We are amazing!
See the music by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s
“Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia”
Listen to Edward Munch’s “The Scream”
Taste Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine”
Touch and feel Andrei Tarkosky’s “The Mirror”
Walk and dream Plato’s “Symposium”
And smell Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians”.
You’d fall in love with this impossible world!
Life is a voyage in which one seeks self-realization.
Some travel on well-thought-out plans while other follow uncharted paths. Kumiko first pursued a business career earning an MBA and working in Marketing for multinational corporations. However she found herself drawn to artistic work, eventually realizing that painting allowed full expression of her creativity and here lay the route to her self-realization.
Everything began with one dream where she saw herself wearing shoes, but on the wrong feet. The strangeness of the dream prompted her search into man's unconscious. After extensive reading of books by psychologists and psycho-analysts, especially of the Jungian school, and meetings with them, Kumiko changed her career path and started taking photographs and painting under the theme of "Dream".
Welcome to her colourful world!