About Masako Roberts
b 1967 Kyoto and Osaka Japan
r Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Masako Roberts was born and raised in Kyoto-Osaka, Japan, and moved to the United States in 1993. She graduated from Missouri Western State University in 1999 with a BA in Fine Arts and earned her MFA from Maine College of Art and Design in 2001. Beginning her graduate study, she dropped oil painting at once and started working on sculptures using plaster, fabric, and store-bought items. Her mixed-media sculptures included multiple group shows in Maine, Virginia, New York, and other states. She began gouache painting in 2018, personal and domestic scenes, especially relationships of pets, family, and lived spaces. Aside from her studio work, her pet portraits can be commissioned via Etsy where she is known as Dog Color. She works and lives in Newark, New Jersey, with her husband and two cats.
Artist’s Statements
Ugly Truth
I embark on a series of portraits of myself and my extended family entitled “Ugly Truth.” Each painting will highlight physical and mental features deemed unattractive that lead to an internalized self-consciousness and corporeal manifestations of intergenerational traumas that mirror our strained relationships. This series is on going.
(Jun. 2023)
Laundry Day Series
I re-examined my personal space and recreated a series of domestic shots and twenty-six “Laundry Day” paintings, and still counting. I have untidy things all over the apartment, laundry days, life with pets, and an art studio. Random objects and pets are white noise in my everyday life. The things are loose, insignificant, and attached but suggest my insight.
In paintings, the objects and cats become white noise, patterns, and shapes. Viewers’ eyes move each color and shape from one piece to another through each image. I want the objects and cats to transform into a flat form and shapes.
Cats in my work are my affection. Cats are quirky, reserved, and affectionate in a selfish way. I share their sensitivity and admire their free spirits and deniable charm.
(Nov. 2022)
Monkey-Watching
though the screen
Monkey-watching is like people-watching in a park. Their community laws are fascinating to observe—they inhabit a pack of 250 and follow a strict hierarchy. The group comprises a leader, several adult males, generations of females, and their offspring. Their interactions, behaviors, communications, and learning processes are magnetic beyond what I imagined, and they quickly captured my attention.
These monkeys may be wild and live in the mountains, but they are tourist attractions on Awaji Island, near Kobe, Japan. The middle-ranked group, followed by the leaders and the high-ranked one, prepares with the best strategy, focusing on jumping and catching the fruits. When they miss, the game is over until the next time, when they do the same thing. These scenes are drawn to me, like watching sporting events.
I adapted my typical approach to this series. I often paint my everyday life, things that inhabit my space and with which I have a relationship. An online platform that creates connections. I do not know these monkeys, but they spoke to me.
(Nov. 2022)