Envisioning hope

Tradition, current events and the land shape the works of artist and activist Mayumi Oda

By Joleen Oshiro

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 27, 2012

~~<p>There are people who ponder things so deeply, who are so reflective in their considerations, that their philosophies become their contribution to the world. Then there are the doers, those folks who, upon hearing a great idea from a thinker, are out the door in a heartbeat to turn those ideas into action. In artist, farmer and activist Mayumi Oda, the world has both.</p>
<p>Oda was an artist in Japan in the early 1990s when her country turned a critical eye toward its nuclear energy policy. At that point, she said, "I was pushed out of the art world by plutonium. I used my creativity doing activist work."</p>
~~

There are people who ponder things so deeply, who are so reflective in their considerations, that their philosophies become their contribution to the world. Then there are the doers, those folks who, upon hearing a great idea from a thinker, are out the door in a heartbeat to turn those ideas into action. In artist, farmer and activist Mayumi Oda, the world has both.

Oda was an artist in Japan in the early 1990s when her country turned a critical eye toward its nuclear energy policy. At that point, she said, "I was pushed out of the art world by plutonium. I used my creativity doing activist work." Login for more...