About

Hello. I’m Mariko and I’m an artist based in Hawaii. I guess you could say that I’m a late-bloomer. I came to art and illustration when I was already forty-five. And in my mind, it was quite unexpected. I had been a writer and a teacher for most of my life. The thought of being an artist was the furthest thing from my mind. But in retrospect, I was always creative. I designed jewelry for a while. I used to make some of my own clothes when I was young. I loved photography. But these things always seemed like hobbies, not something that would be my career path. In 2011, I won second place, an Honor Award, for the Lee & Low Books New Voices Award, and that kind of got me thinking. I was still focused on my goal of publishing a novel, but that was the spark.

A year later, I went to my first and only SCBWI conference in Los Angeles. It was so wonderful! At that time, there were two intensive tracks to sign up for either writing or illustration. I signed up for the writing track and while it was informative, I totally regretted it. I had absolutely no art experience and I didn’t have the confidence to choose the illustration track, but I felt drawn to artists. My favorite workshops were with illustrators. I sat in the back of Bryan Collier’s session and teared up when he said that some kid halfway across the world is waiting for your work, so you have to do it. I should have known then that art was my proper place. It felt like I had come home. But I wasn’t ready yet.

When I left teaching for writing full time, I think I believed that as long as I worked hard, I would be a literary darling in no time. That was not my story. I sold exact thirty-seven copies of my novel The Weeping Field. And that was after eleven years of work. But within that time, I started to doodle. I drew little animals and funny scenes to amuse myself. I started making some greeting cards. Then, I took an illustration class in 2017. For our final project, I created a mock up of my picture book story for the New Voices Award. I also started painting things from my imagination like the Kokeshi Ramen painting.

But the thing that finally pushed me over the threshold into art was getting sick. I had actually been sick for a long time. I had a lot of pain. And finally in 2024, I had to have major surgery. Facing your own mortality is the biggest motivator and life-giver I have ever known. Once I was well enough, I knew that I wanted to do art and picture books. Right now, I am so grateful for everything I went through because it brought me here to this deep place of knowing, of joy, of love and creativity. I’m still figuring it all out, but I’m so happy to finally be on this path. And I’m so grateful to be sharing my creations with all of you.

Thank you for being here.

Instagram: @marikodreamsofapricots