shashasha

While living in Japan, I began to feel my lack of knowledge of where I come from. I had grown up under oak and pine trees my whole life, playing with the acorns and pinecones like toys without further thought. In fact, these seeds had been feeding us for thousands of years. I learned that our people have called this place home, long before it was called “California,” and were given a vibrant language with which to reflect its core. In studying these ancient words, we can now begin once again to build our relationship with this place and call things by their true names. – Levi Pata (“from a small room”)

Painting with a background of Native American ancestry, he is able to find common ground with Japanese culture and his own roots.

― Statement from publisher