Art Is
A Journey into the Light
Published on 21. October 2025
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-0-300-27365-6 (ISBN)
Description
From a widely celebrated artist, this dazzling book takes readers on a profound journey into the heart of creativity
When Makoto Fujimura painted as a child, he felt a mysterious electrical charge pass through him. Over decades of art making, writing, and reflecting in his studio, he has come to understand this charge as his Creator-a source he connects with most profoundly when making art. To be human is to be creative, Fujimura believes, and art making is a discipline of awareness, prayer, and praise by which we journey back to our original light.
In this book, Fujimura takes readers along on his meandering journey as an artist. We witness him making his "process-driven slow art"-using pulverized minerals, gold, or pigments made from oyster shell-as he considers the plants and wildlife on the land where he lives. He draws on Japanese aesthetics, modernist art, Christian theology, sado (art of tea), literature, ecology, and personal narrative, with inspiration ranging from William Blake's poetry to the art of Mark Rothko and Josef Albers, and from the wisdom of Scripture and Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu to the traditional Japanese painting technique called Nihonga.
Bringing together the author's written reflections and his paintings, drawings, and photographs, Art Is invites us to see the world in prismatic and diverse lights, helping us navigate the fractured, divisive times we live in.
When Makoto Fujimura painted as a child, he felt a mysterious electrical charge pass through him. Over decades of art making, writing, and reflecting in his studio, he has come to understand this charge as his Creator-a source he connects with most profoundly when making art. To be human is to be creative, Fujimura believes, and art making is a discipline of awareness, prayer, and praise by which we journey back to our original light.
In this book, Fujimura takes readers along on his meandering journey as an artist. We witness him making his "process-driven slow art"-using pulverized minerals, gold, or pigments made from oyster shell-as he considers the plants and wildlife on the land where he lives. He draws on Japanese aesthetics, modernist art, Christian theology, sado (art of tea), literature, ecology, and personal narrative, with inspiration ranging from William Blake's poetry to the art of Mark Rothko and Josef Albers, and from the wisdom of Scripture and Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu to the traditional Japanese painting technique called Nihonga.
Bringing together the author's written reflections and his paintings, drawings, and photographs, Art Is invites us to see the world in prismatic and diverse lights, helping us navigate the fractured, divisive times we live in.
Reviews / Votes
"Luminous. . . . An impassioned artistic manifesto."-Publishers WeeklyStarred New Book of the Week, Englewood Review of Books
Longlisted in Publishers Weekly's Fall 2025 Preview
"In this beautifully heartfelt text, Fujimura shows us that 'Art is awareness,' a journey of looking and listening that encompasses the worlds around and within us. The book is richly illustrated with examples of his work that derive from his faith and embody the generative acts of repairing the world and peacemaking."-Christopher Rothko, author of Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out
"Makoto Fujimura is well known as one of the major visual artists of his generation in North America and as a particularly sensitive and original interpreter of art's spiritual dimension. This new book offers insights into his creative process and is a work of real freshness and beauty."-Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
"When reading Makoto Fujimura's Art Is, I hear song sparrows, bluebirds, and a goldfinch deliver an impossible peace with his paintings. Like William Blake's, his faith is a door to his imagination. Working to the rhythm of slow art practice, Makoto Fujimura is a master painter very much in the present."-Susie Ibarra, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, percussionist, sound artist
"Through an intimate studio tour, Art Is invites creative souls into Mako's painting process-fusing the alchemy of light with his theology of making. This luminous, heartfelt reverie fosters an embodied connection with God, humanity and nature-an inspiring read."-Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, Pratt Institute
"With his stunning visual art and his lyrical writing, Mako shows us that art is a journey toward beauty as a revelation of hope: for abundance emerging through scarcity; for love replacing transaction; for truth-telling subverting injustice; for light shining through darkness in both human history and human hearts. From its most fragile expressions to its powerful convergence of science, spirituality, and creativity, he plumbs beauty's depths of meaning in this masterpiece for mind, body, and soul."-Ian Morgan Cron, author of The Road Back to You
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
79 color illus.
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
588 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-27365-6 (9780300273656)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Makoto Fujimura is a contemporary artist and writer. His books include Art and Faith: A Theology of Making; Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture; Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering; and Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life. He lives in New Jersey.