youko.yasuda is a Japanese artist who grew up near a Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan. Having a temple as a childhood playground, she had exposure to famous Japanese ink paintings, paintings on the sliding door, and dragon paintings on the ceiling from an early age. Though she was a tomboy, she also enjoyed drawing pictures and all the compliments she got on her pieces, which led her to major in oil paintings in high school. After graduation, she started working in the textile industry, creating paintings for 84 rooms in the Biwako Hotel in Shiga Prefecture and 12 sets of folding screen paintings for the Kyoto ANA Hotel. She got involved in creating Buddhist statues as a family business after she married, working on the coloring of the Buddhist statues and metal cutting. After years of arduous training, she mastered Kirikane, a technique of cutting golf leaves into thin strips to create a pattern. Through painting pictures of Buddha, she discovered the beauty that lines create. However, with the outbreak of COVID-19, she felt insecure about not being able to continue her work until she finally managed to hold a dual exhibition with her husband of Buddhist statues and paintings this May in Tokyo. It brought her to the realization that the colors and patterns of gold are not only beautiful, but their brilliance has the power to bring happiness to people. With the effective use of colors, lines, and gold leaves, she wishes to create paintings that slightly brighten up the spirit of people who live amidst the insecurity of the global pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine. Believing that displaying a painting makes our daily lives more colorful and thus enriches them, she delivers happiness with her work.