Artists Reception: Saturday, January 10, 2009,
2:30 to 4:30 PM.


The Art Gallery of the New Haven Free Public Library
133 Elm Street (lower level) New Haven, CT 06510
(located across from the New Haven Green,
corner of Temple Street & Elm Street)


Artist statement by Izumi Tokuno
I am such a dreamer, I know that the best way to realize my American dream is to Dream in Large Scale. I believe that my vivid blue, which comes from the powerful rainbow radiant color visions is a dramatic creation exercise. In the Dream at Large...I believe that color is the most direct and powerful message-transmitter in the Computer Art era. We can perceive millions of colors, but the space in our minds to understand color is small. I would love to make people larger through the use of my visual memories, such as the Rising Sun, the Symbol of my country.

Since 1992, I have worked with the blue colors from rich digital inks. Once I collect small pieces of images on my computer, they evolve into other shapes, which I digitally change to produce works of great depth and emotion. My works are intimately connected to the history and practice of paintings. My approach to art is not only technology. I am always expressing Indigo Hue of dusk of the Japanese sky at twilight through strong digitalｓ.
I love the words of George Santayana (1863-1952), the Poet and Philosopher:
"A Dreamer consenting to Dream of the Actual World"

Ms.Tokuno grew up the city of Matsuyama, located on Shikoku Island, Japan which is known as the birth place of Haiku, as well as Ooe Kenzaburo, winner of the Nobel prize for literature. For 20 years, she lived in Tokyo, and has been in the US for the past seven years. She holds a Bachelor and Master's Degree in Painting, Art History & Theory from Tama Art University, Tokyo, a popular university of art well-known for training the famous designers, Issei Miyake and architects Toyo Ito. She lives on Roosevelt Island, NYC, where she is an exhibiting member of Gallery RIVAA.

She has exhibited her artworks around the world: at the Conference of High Resolution Digital Pictures of the World ISO in England, 1993, at the Turku Art Society Gallery in and the Helsinki MUU Media Festival in Finland, 1991, at Paris de Tokyo and IMAGINA 92 in France, 1992, and the Conference at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.,1997.One of her large digital printings (H 3000mm W 1200 mm) was selected and donated to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., as a permanent collection.

As a commercial printing designer, Ms.Tokuno designed for over 250 book covers (including textbooks and magazines) and ski board of Spalding in '94 season and Erbacher in '95 season. She also designed the strap of Personal Handy Phone System (NTT) (like a watch) for Nagano Winter Olympic Games 1998 (NAOC, Tokyo).

As a lecturer of extensive computer graphic experience, Ms. Tokuno taught over 600 people including university students and business executive directors. Some of her students have won international prizes for excellence. She really loves to see people who had little knowledge in computers become able to enjoy their graphics as healthy diet of cooking.

* "dessin" in French and Japanese means drawing, sketching. Professional Art-word "dessin" means also a special skill of drawing.In German "dessin" means Design.
To Editors: Attached are thumbnails of Ms. Tokunos artworks, which are the only jpgs the artist has chosen
to release. If you would like larger images for a news article, please contact her directly, and she will send
you images with the accurate size and resolution, immediately.
Ms. Tokuno's email address is tokuno@earthlink.net.

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Exhibition: December 30, 2008 - January 31, 2009.
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Library & GALLERY Hours:
Mon. 12-8pm. Tue - Thurs 10am-8pm, Friday 12-5pm.
Saturday 10am - 5 pm. Sunday closed.
The Library and Gallery are closed January 1 thru January 4th, 2009.
The exhibition is free and open to the public.

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Attachments:
(cossi.jpg) Full moon "cossi" 2007, Print on Paper, H72" W30"

(kinte.jpg) Full moon "kinpekunta" 2007, Print on Paper, H72" W30"

(visage5c.jpg) Visage "winsome 5C" 2007, Acrylic Painting on Canvas, H38" W54"

(visage043.jpg) Visage "winsome 3" 2008, Acrylic Painting on Canvas, H38" W54"