MFA CANDIDATE 2007

BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art 2004

Yumiko Goto was born and raised in a suburb of Osaka,
Japan. She moved to the United States in 1999 and earned an associate art degree from Martin Methodist College in Pulaski TN. She received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in ceramics with an emphasis on Fiber, Metal and a minor in Enameling in 2004. Now she is a graduate at the University of Florida which she is expected to get her MFA. She has received numerous awards and scholarships including the Graduate Alumni Fellowship and the Penland School of Craft partnership scholarship during her time at the University of Florida. Also she was awarded the Helen Greene Perry Traveling scholarship, the Viktor Schrekengost Endowment Fund for Excellence in Ceramics and the Jane Iglauer Fallon’ 36 Scholarship for Excellence in Crafts from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

artist statement
I have always cherished and have always been drawn to nature. In my art work, I try to capture the moments in which I was moved by the beauty, force of life, growth, and the decay in the natural world. My sensibility towards nature comes from ritual events that filled all seasons—from the welcoming of spring at the lunar New Year to picnics under the blossoming cherry trees to offerings made to the harvest moon, and a cultural experience of growing up in Japan. I watch, I feel, and I often borrow textures and forms from nature, melting them together in my mind. Clay has been a perfect partner to express my deep appreciation to nature. Plasticity and honesty of clay allow me to work intuitively, just letting my emotions and spirit flow into it. The ambiguous and mysterious abstract forms are not only the fusion of physical beauty of the nature but also to evoke the energy that is created in the relationship between humans, nature and the universe.