Today we’d like to introduce you to Naomi Nakamura.
Hi Naomi, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I always thought that art was the gateway to my future career. I didn’t know this at first, but when my aunt brought 11-year-old me to her college tour at ArtCenter, telling me all the possibilities with art, I knew I had to be part of that world. So in middle school, I devoted myself to an after-school art club and joined a class that explored drawing. My art teacher had this distinctive style to his characters and storytelling. All I can recall is the urge to do the same as him. For the longest time, I wanted to be an artist who would draw graphic novels. By the time I was in high school, becoming an artist felt more and more pointless. It wasn’t the challenging lifestyle; but my vision of who I wanted to be. I chose to be part of school cross country, track, and wrestling teams, which steered me away from art. I truly loved doing stop motion animation, ceramic sculpture, and painting; but my thoughts kept contemplating the same trivial question; what will my artistic ability be for? What good will it do besides entertaining viewers? I needed to do more than draw what I felt or sculpt a figure with a meaning of internal deterioration. It grew complicated to narrow down why art is supposed to be important to me. But despite my concerns, I still applied to my dream school to keep searching for answers.
Through illustration at ArtCenter, I gravitated to the design and social innovation track called Designmatters. Finally, my answer appeared clear, utilizing my ability to design a voice for communities and organizations. To be able to inform families from low-income areas or the ability to simplify important facts for children to learn about vaccines or colorectal cancer. Designing for communication bridged my reasons to illustrate. Still, creating informational graphics for communication felt broad, and I wanted to connect personally to my intentions.
Coincidently, I joined a one-time class featuring a surf and skate edition. An opportunity I didn’t see coming because as much as I loved surfing and as much as I loved drawing, combining my two favorites felt illegal. Being part of this class gave me more of a personal connection to my goal. Through this experience, I had the chance to inform others about the beauty of surfing and its romance. My parents used to tell me that their first date was surfing. My mom didn’t know what’s surfing, nor did she know how to put on a wet suit. My dad taught her the first wave and told her, “Let’s follow the sun.” I decided to illustrate their first date to narrate the wonders of surfing and how their relationship is significant to me. Being mixed race, Japanese and Mexican, I wanted to reveal the diversity in surfing. Surfing in America was raised into a political sport and racial separation, but surfing was born in Hawaii. Surfing welcomed all nationalities, ages, and gender into the waters. Welcoming all to the waters marked a pivotal narration to my story.
Today I’m still striving to pull myself into the surf industry to ensure and continue to encourage surf culture and become more inviting for everyone. I plan to bridge design and education for children to learn about surfing and its historical culture. One day be able to organize a community to bring surfing to those who don’t live by the beach. I was lucky, for my dad would save enough money to drive my mom and me to San Onofre or Seal Beach every Saturday to surf. Now, I intend to continue my father’s treasured passion by teaching the beauty of surfing.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Social skills were challenging for me when I was a child. I was terrible at making friends and made more enemies instead. Since I’m mixed race, I was automatically separated from others in elementary. I was picked on for not looking more Asian or unable to speak Japanese fluently. Bullying hindered my opportunity to grow and make trusting friends. Instead, I stopped embracing the two cultures I held and lost my confidence in my identity. It wasn’t until I was at ArtCenter that I gravitated to others who were also mixed race like me. I must be a voice for people of multiracial backgrounds and be part of the community.
Besides facing many social challenges, the year my dad was diagnosed with Neuroendocrine cancer was the most devastating and almost impossible time of my life. I was taking the surf and skate class when my dad’s cancer grew more aggressive. Seeing him in unbearable pain every second of every day hurt me during school, work, and staying all night with him in the hospital. I illustrated my parents’ first date as a gift to my dad. To be able to honor my dad’s life and passion through surfing.
To add more context to my parent’s story, I included a design of three wooden-shaped surfboard fins. While painting the fins, my dad sitting in a wheelchair, watched me test color swatches. I’ll never forget his smile as I showed him my process. Despite his loss of muscle, weight, color, and losing memory; he still had the strength to support me.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I connect through illustrative storytelling but have a profound passion for design. I enjoy challenging myself to explore different ways to tell a story. Either it’s through traditional illustration or sourcing materials to acknowledge detail to color, mood, or the surface it creates. From sketching out multiple logo designs to reflect a brand, illustrating game cards to bridge emotional memories between families, or drawing images and research for educational purposes for teachers and children. With dry brush strokes and fluid line work that takes pride in the imperfection of straight or smooth lines. My style finds its way to embrace an emotion that only reveals itself through saturated colors and a mixture of line weights. Through design, it’s another open door to the number of opportunities to build what I want to voice for communities. As a human rights advocate, I help and support others through design.
What were you like growing up?
I can admit how similar my personality is to both of my parent’s personalities. As a child, I was outgoing like my dad, unafraid to talk to people I didn’t know well. I was that child who goes up to the new kid at school to say hi and be extremely curious. By the time I got into high school, I was more like my mother; I was always to myself and hung out with people who were more mature than I was. Growing up, my parents worked hard to keep our family up-float. Naturally, I’ll do more than others would expect, even if I believe I didn’t do enough. I still don’t do enough. I take after my mom the most, ambition, workaholic, open-minded, and forgiving. I’m not the best at jokes, but because non of us ever take anything too seriously, we fill every day with laughter. Inherently, I’ll crack up or say something to bring some snorts to people who are comfortable around me. But just like both of them, I have their love for surfing and am always in tune with nature’s playground.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://naominakamuraart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naominaka_art/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-nakamura-353256246/
Image Credits
Igloo Coolers Playmate One-off collaboration
