Gallery North enjoys the January tradition each year of welcoming our newest members in a show titled In With the New, featuring these fresh faces and their beautiful artwork.  This year our featured exhibit will highlight our two new members from 2021: Yasuko Nakamura and Kuria Jorissen. 

Yasuko Nakamura studied graphic design at Seattle Central College and started her career in the letterpress greeting card business.  Although she enjoyed the process of designing cards and appreciated the beauty of various typefaces, the Japanese comics and anime that she grew up with in her home country were always in the back of her mind as strong influences that she felt were always driving her to do something more.  She eventually embarked on transforming herself into a fantasy artist, mixing concepts and aesthetics of the East and West in her work.  

Watercolor is her favorite medium, though she enjoys black and white drawings, and digital painting as well.

As an immigrant, she has a strong belief in the concept of a borderless world, where culture and art are shared and appreciated mutually, and believes that art itself invites such a borderless or unlimited audience.  “Art, like imagination, is vast and without borders, and its audience should get lost in the journey with the artist.”

Kuria Jorissen got her start behind the camera at a very young age and pursued it all the way to a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography.  The current show spotlights her interest in astrophotography.  Often traveling to far off wilderness areas, Kuria does most of her work from midnight to 4 am.  Astrophotography involves constantly learning and many foiled attempts—the one lesson you learn quickly is to never trust the weather reports!  Kuria focuses on studying new techniques for capturing and editing photos, planning tools, astronomy, and the lesser known stories of the stars.

Through her work, Kuria seeks to express the stories beyond the well known constellations—to bring people to that moment in the wild and show them the beauty of what lies outside the cities.  Through this, she is also seeking to educate and encourage the preservation of our natural lands and dark skies.

In With the New opens January 1st at Gallery North in downtown Edmonds and runs through Jan. 31.  All artwork is available for purchase during the show.  There will be a reception where you can meet the artists on Sunday, January 9^th, from 1 to 4pm, and on the 3rd Thursday Artwalk on January 20th from 5 to 8pm.  Due to Covid restrictions, no refreshments will be served.