Book Review: Art Is

Art Is: A Journey into the Light by Makoto Fujimura (Yale University Press, 2025).

Makoto Fujimura is that rare artist who can work in two different media—painting and writing—with equal skill. His books, particularly Culture Care, have been formative for me. His vision of culture as a garden to be tended rather than a battlefield to be fought over shifted my whole way of thinking in a better and healthier direction.

In his recent book Art Is, Fujimura reflects on his life as an artist, giving us a closer look at how he expresses that vision through his paintbrush as well as his pen.

Born in the United States, although much of his childhood was spent in his parents’ native Japan, Fujimura was initially reluctant to explore his Japanese heritage. But once he did, he recalls, it opened up to him a new artistic world with new values: patience, resilience, resourcefulness, and an appreciation of and willingness to renew the flawed and the broken. The story of his artistic journey becomes the story of his personal and spiritual growth, as well as his healing from post-9/11 PTSD (he was among those trapped in the subway under the second tower as it fell).

And the story of that growth is focused not just on himself, but on the ways the resulting art can reach the wider community. “As I’ve walked the path of these stone steps to my studio,” he writes, “I now see that I have been given a path to create portals, to dedicate my life to my art, so that future generations can create their own paths and sing their own soliloquies.” One painting, Jacob’s Ladder, was born out of a visit to India with his wife, Haejin, a lawyer working with victims of sex trafficking. (Together Haejin and Makoto wrote the book Beauty and Justice, which I reviewed briefly here, about how their work in their different fields complements each other.) Other works were painted to commemorate 9/11 and the shooting at Columbine High School, reflecting the trauma and strength of those still dealing with the fallout.

But this book is not just about how art affects the world, but about the nature and creation of the art itself. Fujimura painstakingly describes his materials and processes, all of which have special and inherent meaning that add value to the finished work. His art fills the pages of this book, from simple line drawings to photographs of wall-sized paintings awash in color. Some of it can be viewed here, at his website. It’s not always easy to understand at first, even though he offers some explanations in the book of the effects he’s achieving. Although many call his art “abstract,” Fujimura writes, he instead refers to his style as “essentiation,” or “capturing … an essence of an object, figure, or landscape.” He also calls it “slow art.” Adapted in part from traditional Japanese painting, his style involves creating multiple layers of pulverized minerals and letting them rest and change over time. The resulting works are beautiful but often mysterious, requiring careful attention from the observer.

Slow art, in other words, requires slow viewing—something that doesn’t come easily in our hectic world. Which is exactly why we need so much to learn it.

In general, to read about Fujimura’s art is to understand why what he is doing is so countercultural, and why our sick and frenzied culture needs such a counter. And for me, to study that art in the pages of his book is to start to find some peace and respite in the midst of that culture. As Fujimura writes, “Perhaps art, like weeds, continues to grow despite the harshness of cultural winds.” Perhaps the simple act of creating something beautiful out of sheer love of creation is a remedy, or at least the beginnings of a remedy, for so much of what ails us.

(Cover image courtesy of Yale University Press.)

Book Links:

Art Is on Amazon
Art Is on Bookshop

(Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Goodreads Links:

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
This Dark Night by Deborah Lutz

Links for My Latest Book:

The Screen and the Mirror on Amazon
The Screen and the Mirror at Hearts and Minds Books (20% off)
The Screen and the Mirror at Wipf and Stock
The Screen and the Mirror at Bookshop