Aki Takahashi was born in Aichi Prefecture, and greatly influenced by her father’s love of Buddhist paintings. Growing up looking at beautiful and cosmic Buddhist paintings from an early age nurtured in her an appreciation of nature as well as a sense of color, and these became the foundation from which Aki grew close to painting. After graduating from high school where her course of studies was focused on design, she became experienced in pottery and porcelain painting, and in sign art using oil pastels.Then, from a solo exhibition in 2016, Aki began to make acrylic paintings.The motifs of Aki’s art include the scent of the wind, the sound of the rain striking the trees’ leaves, breathing and gaze, the flow of time, boundaries, etc. Texture that has a sense of transparency becomes the symbol, and draws and weaves like tapestries things we cannot see. Also, from the experience of caring for her parents, Aki learned that art affects the care of patients and their families, and relieves pain of the mind and body. Aki thinks of things that are before “sayonara” – the goodbyes said when we will not see each other before the turn of some metaphorical page – and these things she holds snuggled up to her heart, and then she needs to draw. Aki believes that when art and care meet, they are freed from various constraints, and that then regeneration and creation begin. Aki’s dream is to create a place to feel pain and sadness together.