Shino Soma's work is about human relations, human emotions, and human stories. Recently her focus has been on family, a complex connection between being an individual person and being a part of a family unit. Certain situations and stories derived from Soma's childhood are presented in her images and are also described in traditional japanese text, often in a post-war Japanese household setting where she grew up. Other works explore the psyche and emotion of post-war Japanese culture (attire, architecture, food and subculture), often with a distinct sense of irony.
Soma's creative process starts with drawing innumerable faces, literally drawn from her imagination, her memories, or simply on the whim of her intuition. From these, she selects several from which to tell her narrative.
Exploring a variety of printmaking techniques, in particular traditional Japanese woodblock, Soma's work is often a multipart narrative, told in a series of pieces that attempt to create a greater emotional story. Recently she has experimented with using multiple colors on a single woodblock as well as a combination of collage, water-based and oil-based inks. The result is a hybrid of traditional and non-traditional technique, perfectly matching Soma's unique perspective and vision.
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