Danielle O'connor Akiyama is a Toronto based Canadian artist. After an extensive carreer in art therapy she now dedicates herself fully to painting. Danielle studied sumi-e, Japanese brushpainting, a traditional technique where each brush stroke is loaded with a variety of color. She received her master's seal and her work bears her chop as well as her signature.

Artist Statement:

lao tzu says " the way that can be spoken is not the way" it is difficult for me to write about my approach to painting as it is a thing of doing; a silent thing, a solitary, soulful, sacred act.

it is important to follow a daily ritual when i enter this private world of canvas, paint and vision. i cleanse my studio - the ringing three times of bells - once for leaving myself behind, once for the canvas at the helm, once again for all the spirits to join in.

the placement of pigment to palette carries a weight of knowledge and measure. it is pigment to palette carries a weight of knowledge and measure. it is my passport to the unknown.when these things are in place, i must leave the controls and allow spontaneity to reign and belief to begin. painting primarily in watercolour for over twenty five years, i have worked in many media, and now have taken my voice to acrylic on canvas.. the aim is the same. the unerring quest for truth and beauty... my dedication in this pursuit has led me to the last seven years of blossoms unbounding. ...and always there is contrast - of hard edge meeting nebulus mass, of strong colour and undefined mutable hue; of strong diagonals and stoic bamboo juxtaposing undulating blossoms. In full spectrum i paint with rhythm, tempe and ultimately alchemy. each canvas begets the next;

each has it's own melody and lyric but springs from the same garden. each is a sonata of faith in culture, faith in fellow man, faith in oneself. relationship of brush to canvas, of heart to vision, is the translation of a place remembered, a scent, a colour, a shock of light against the dying of the day. these are the bones of my work.