ABOUT
Born in Japan but grew up in the United State, Yukio Kevin Iraha's goal in life has always been to be creative. While there’s cultural influences from both East and West, the root of his art stems in story telling. The stories derived from memories, cultural anecdotes, history, or folk tales; he then mixes those ideas with personal touch and imaginations. Iraha’s primary medium is acrylic, although collage technique has become part of an unique accents in most recent works. He has bachelor of fine arts degree, exhibited art widely in the past. Ever more adventurous, he has branched out to commercial art venues as well. Beside creating personal art, he has contributed illustrations to national magazines and publications in the past. One of the newer creations is a surreal comic strip, “Nine Bits,” which serialized through online format. His art is eclectic and ethereal but integrity never fails in both the creating and outcome of the pieces. He clearly believes authenticity in art. He says, "In this overloaded information world, it's easy to mimic or copy styles of others out of whim. I try to express my true self. I don't make art to please people, or try to be popular, that's never been my intent. The truest sense and hardest part of being an artist means to mature and grow into being one: to develop one's original style. In order to grow, one has to find and learn what really matters in life. It means chisel, carve out, and fine tune who you are. We need to sharpen our perceptions. Creating something truly of your own takes a long, arduous process which involves trial and errors. Visually speaking, we have some intuitive senses of what forms, styles, or colors speaks to us. I want to keep on nurturing those intuitions." |