This painting really started with the background. I was gifted a beautiful Japanese tea cloth by the mother of my exchange students, and I loved it so much that I knew I had to paint it. It became the starting point for everything else.
At first, I thought about painting a geisha, but I didn’t want to create a traditional image. I wanted to give it a twist. I’ve always been drawn to Surrealism and the way it brings together unexpected objects to tell a story, so I started asking myself, what if version of a geisha was getting ready for a night out in the 1980s?
The figure occupies a space between cultures, eras, and realities. She is both timeless and modern, graceful yet playful. By combining the refined aesthetic of the Japanese-inspired background with distinctly Western symbols of the 1980s, I wanted to create a portrait that feels simultaneously elegant, humorous, and slightly surreal.
For me, this painting is about mixing cultures, memories and imagination. It’s playful, a little cheeky, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. I wanted it to be bold enough to stop people in their tracks, but also to make them smile and wonder who she’s talking to—and what the conversation might be about