Yoko Akino

Yoko Akino was born in Kyoto, Japan. She moved to Ireland in 1996 and joined Graphic Studio Dublin where she has worked ever since. She lives by Carlingford Lough on the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth.

"I grew up near Kyoto with my grandmother Fuku Akino, a well-known painter working with traditional Japanese pigments. I learned the qualities and the spirit of art from my grandmother; that an artist should be fearless and experimental in outlook while respecting and learning from the vision and techniques of the past. Apart from the time spent at her side I am self-taught. My interest in crisp lines led me to study etching. I have always been inspired by the constantly changing Irish weather, the dance of light and shadow and the shifting colours. In recent years I have been particularly captured by the coastal environment and offshore Islands. The movement of waves evokes in me a sense of the ocean being alive and I have tried to capture this experience in my prints."