Keiko Hara offers a detailed exploration of the prolific artist's unwavering commitment to painting, and her unique form of Japanese woodblock printmaking. Rich with metaphorical imagery, Hara's visual universe encompasses references to water, fire, skies, and verdant lands, all the while investigating the poetics of space. Born during the Second World War in North Korea to Japanese parents, Hara moved to Japan in 1945 and was raised and educated there. As a young woman, she attended art school in Tokyo at the Oita prefecture. In 1971 she embarked on a lifelong endeavor seeking greater artistic freedom in the United States. Separated from her cultural surroundings, memory and longing became overarching themes for this deeply poetic artist. Hara's journey took her to Mississippi State University for Women, Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and ultimately to Walla Walla, Washington, where she taught at Whitman College for 21 years until she retired in 2006. She has shown at numerous one-person and invitational group exhibitions throughout the United States, and her work is part of permanent collections at the National Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Racine Art Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Hardesty, Ryan

Ryan Hardesty is the executive director and curator of exhibitions and collections for Washington State University's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Additional museum experience includes work with the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture in Spokane, Washington, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Tesner, Linda

Linda Tesner is a fine arts consultant and independent curator in Portland, Oregon. She has held assistant director, director, and/or curator roles at Portland State University's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, the Portland Art Museum, and Goldendale, Washington's Maryhill Museum of Art. She is the author of numerous exhibition catalogues and monographs and has a special interest in public art projects.