Kumi-e Artist

Mutsuko's Kumi-e are a personal blend of techniques borrowed from the Japanese Chigiri-e (hand tom paper pictures) and Hari-e (collages). Included in that blend are also elements derived from Mutusko's experiences with glass mosaic and with baitk which she learned in Indonesia. Mutsuko uses paper as the medium to describe visual sensations and also convey mental process and feelings of change, and transformation seen in nature.

Mutsuko Bonnardeaux was born in Tokyo, Japan. From an early age, she developed a love for Japanese classical dance and craft. She then went to England where she studied glass mosaic and oil painting while learning English. Her English school being next to the British Museum, Mutsuko spent many of her free hours enjoying occidental art.

After completing her English studies, Mutsuko decided to learn French and settled in Louvain, Belgium. Again she combined language and art studies. She enrolled in a pottery course given by a sculptor. Speaking fluent in French and English, she worked two years in Paris for Japan Airlines. She married with a Belgian student and moved to Brussels to work with Sabena Airlines.

It was the first of a series of moves that would see her living in nine different countries in the next 20 years. She settled in 1987 in the remote town of Kununurra, northern Western Australia. Inspired by the Kimberley she produced her first Kumi-e.

Ten years and several exhibitions later, including Tokyo, Paris, Bruxelles and New Zealand, Mutsuko and her family moved to Geraldton, a region world known for its wildflowers.

She makes and dyes most of the paper herself. The papers are derived from kozo and dyes including paper, fabric, and batik.

The inherent characteristics of paper density, colour, surface texture, transparency, frayed or neatened edges are expertly used to give depth to the picture, and impart an organic sensuality not found in oil or water colour paintings. Her works speak eloquently for themselves and express the richness of both Western and Eastern artistic traditions.

Mutsuko excels at fusing craft with art. Concentrating on expression and feeling rather than adhering to a grammar learned in a traditional art school. Mutsuko avoids the conflict between figuration and abstraction and is able to express her views in an accessible language. Her Kumi-e have the power immediately strike a responsive chord in any viewer that values harmony, reverence for nature and tranquility.