On view through February in the Children's Room at the Mulberry Street Library is the painting and mixed-media exhibition by artist Yuko K., called Blanche. All images in the show are white on white. I spoke with Yuko recently about her show:

All the images in this exhibit are white. What was your inspiration in working with this color, and with mixed-media? 

The earliest trigger inspiring me to start working with white color was the image of "Piano", for the same title’s group show I participated in years ago. I had been using primal colors for most of my works before that time, and I was actually looking for the matching image of "Piano" and then, as I was sitting in front of a white canvas and thinking how to express images in my original way, that color itself gave me the inspiration of the white piano keys and sounds. Since that time, I began to explore how to show diversity in using white color.

What do you want the viewer to experience and feel when looking at these images?

I just want viewers to find attraction in white color itself that might be often overlooked, because white is always a background color of main colored items—but that background color itself has original faces and has more than enough potential in being a leading role.

People often associate the color black with death, loss, and the void. How does white accomplish this as well? 

I think black is as simply a symbolic color of darkness caused by a loss or void, as when people wear black in submitting to mourning where it signifies a manner of requiem to sincerely face the darkness caused—it is a more external expression of loss. But from the view of the inner spiritual world, death represents crossing the river to go to a new world spiritually, the starting of new lessons and experiences in a new location. White must be most significant color for that philosophy is my idea.

The cross is often a motif in your work. What does this symbolize to you? 

As I mentioned in my original artist statement for symbolic figures, the cross is one of the most representative symbolic figures with a special healing energy I have felt in my life experience. When one of the biggest earthquakes happened in Kobe City, Japan, where I grew up, my mental and physical wellbeing was totally disrupted by this terrible disaster, even though I wasn’t there at that time.

I went to a local hospital to treat my depressed state during this time Japan was in chaos, and I unexpectedly found the red cross shape in that hospital appearing with a certain energy that could heal my emotional scars. It was the first time I decided to use the shapes of the cross. Also, I realized then that some of the popular symbols we often catch sight of in our daily lives, such as the peace mark, yin and yang, etc. have their own powers more than their literal meanings.

I understand that some people want to connect the shape of the cross with only religion or religious meanings directly, but what I want to express is the profound power of that visual existence that the shapes themselves symbolize. It might sound like a somewhat abstract idea, but I am a visual artist and if some people are able to share this sense of my artistic view, I am pleased. 

What other kinds of projects are you working on now? Are you reading anything you are enjoying? 

I have been constantly taking photos and videos of the people, landscapes, and street scenes of New York City. These are always an inspirational source for me, stimulating my creative motivation. What I like to read always navigates towards that which gives me understanding of human diversities and potentials and the opportunities to break stereotypes, such as in psychology, philosophy and new age but also in romantic stories or adventures. There are imaginations we can always get from these readings that may also feed a stimulation to our subconsciously sleeping brains.