To say that art is my passion is an understatement. I remember being 6 years old, completely drawn to the beautiful artworks displayed in malls and galleries; I would always tell my dad, “I’m going to draw like that one day”––and I did. I knew by age 11 that I was going to devote my life to drawing, painting, and art.

I enjoy drawing faces and painting landscapes. I mostly work in oil, pencil, and colored pencil, but I have experimented with watercolor, acrylic, charcoal, pastel, and sumi-e ink. Drawing realistically is my area of specialty. Currently, my favorite celebrities from Asia are often subjects for many of my drawings. My paintings are often inspired by the culture and the natural beauty of Hawaii, where I've lived my entire life. Drawing and painting is definitely my “absolute passion”.

Recently, Photography and Digital Art have become my serious hobbies. Not getting too technical about it yet––I just really enjoy taking pictures, “photoshopping” them, and meshing together whatever my mind concieves. I use the Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium™ for Mac and a Cannon Rebel™ XTi 400D camera. My best photoshop skill is retouching––faces, glasses glares, stray hairs, unwanted background garbage, whatever!––I can get rid of it. I’m experimenting casually with various subjects in digital photography as well. 

I attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a BFA undergraduate; ultimately, I believe the highest form of education––what matters most––is learned outside of a classroom. I am an Artist not because I have a college education or an art degree, but because I allow myself to struggle Artist struggles, and I teach myself everything I can about the art of being an Artist.

Copyright @ 2010 Emi Nakamura

Below are a few pictures from my "Portrait Swap" with a very popular and skilled local Artist, Wayne Takazono. We drew each other and then swaped them for each other to keep. It was a great experience.

Here is Wayne Takazono's website. He's been one of my favorite artists since I was little.

http://www.waynetakazono.com/index.html

Copyright @ 2010 Emi Nakamura

Here are a few "artistic" pictures of myself. As you can probably tell, I like putting on makeup as a form of art as well. I'm at no means good at but I think of makeup as blending paints on my face instead of a canvas.

Note: My owl necklace. I have lots of owls.....the owl represents my soul, how I love, and how I live.