Title: 3 Centuries, A Koi

Media: Ink on printmaking paper; red and black ink

Size: 26 inches wide by 41 inches high, unframed (Main image is to show the piece on a wall for reference only)

Artists Notes: This decorative nature of modern koi is both beautiful and captivating in how the species made its way into culture through landscape design and art. Like great art, when we learn the history and context, we begin to appreciate it on a deeper level. This piece being both art and symbol about the koi’s history in a serious yet decorative composition gives us double meaning. ​This excerpt is a great way to summarize the context that parallels the research I have read that inspired me to take up the subject of koi in my work. Both as a study and symbolically; “When the Koi fish were presented to the Japanese they saw their great potential and began breeding them to bring out their beautiful colors, something the Chinese never thought of. Rice farmers had originally only kept the Koi as food fish, but at some point between the 1820’s and 1830’s they began to raise Koi for their vibrant colors. The Japanese’s breeding is what gives them the credit for today’s Koi fish hence the name the Japanese Koi Fish.” Source: https://koistory.com/blog/japanese-koi-fish-a-brief-history