Sandra Yagi is a painter who lives and works in San Francisco, California.
Her work reflects her interest in understanding the natural world, our existence and mortality. With a viewpoint rooted in logic and science, and a curiosity for the macabre, she explore themes such as mortality, human experience and our impact on the natural world.
There are several bodies of work :
• Work using anatomy to address human psychology and behavior, and mortality
• Work addressing the impact of humans on the natural world and the tragedy of species extinction.
• Work exploring mythology and attempts to understand the world before the age of science. Recently this has included the world of Japanese Yokai, a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore, which can be seen as personifications of "supernatural or unaccountable phenomena..”
Her work is inspired by the natural sciences as well as by the traditional drawing and painting techniques of the old Western and Eastern masters, including anatomical studies by artists such as Andreas Vesalius and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus.
She is also inspired by anime artist Shigeru Mizuki, and Kawanbe Kyosai .
Brief Bio:
She was raised in suburban Denver Colorado, and from an early age she
loved science (especially biology) and drawing. Yagi’s parents instilled in her
an ethics of getting a “useful” education because of their concern for
monetary and domestic stability—a result of their internment with other
Japanese-Americans during WWII. Yagi therefore put art aside, obtained a
Masters in Business Administration, and worked in the corporate world,
where she put in 27 years at major financial institutions. However, due to
the pent-up need to create, she took up drawing and painting again at age
32, while still working in finance. She left the corporate life behind for good
in 2008 and became a full time artist. Her works are in numerous private
collections, including those of Axl Rose, Ben Stiller, Miley Cyrus, Chris Vroom (Co-Founder
of Artspace), Paul Ruscha, and film director Lee Unkrich (director of Toy
Story 3). Her work has been shown internationally, and may be viewed at
Bert Green Fine Art in Chicago, IL, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, CA and at her website: http://sandrayagi.com/
Statement
Statement 2022
My work deals with how humanity attempts to explain and understand the world. With a viewpoint rooted in logic and science, I explore themes such as mortality, human experience and our impact on the natural world.
I have several bodies of work :
· Work using anatomy to address human psychology and behavior, and mortality
· Work addressing the impact of humans on the natural world and the tragedy of species extinction.
· Work exploring mythology. Recently I have enjoyed exploring the world of Japanese Yokai, a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore, which can be seen as personifications of "supernatural or unaccountable phenomena..”
My work is inspired by the natural sciences as well as by the traditional drawing and painting techniques of the old Western and Eastern masters, including anatomical studies by artists such as Andreas Vesalius and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus. I also love work by anime artist Shigeru Mizuki, and Kawanbe Kyosai .
I work in oil painting, watercolor, gouache and pen and ink.
