Mount Tom, Basin Mountain, and Mount Humphries are Bishop’s House Mountains, the three peaks that preside and watch over us and are always there whenever we take a moment to look up from our daily tasks and routines. Over five years of living in this valley and seeing them every day, on occasion even pulling out pencil and pad to sketch them, I have gotten to know them well enough to have attempted to depict them in the very public and permanent context of a mural. For me they are like the spirits of ancestors, each with a distinct personality, and that is what I wanted to express about them. Mount Tom is massive, dynamic, and chaotic. A bit overbearing perhaps. Basin is the opposite: calm, grounded, and my eyes always settle easily on her elegant symmetry and sweeping curves. Humphries is handsome but remote, not so interested in our comings and goings and has his back turned to us. The white wave, symbolizing the power and spirit of water in the Owens Valley, is rearing up and waving to him. Looking westward, he has bigger water on his mind. Of course all this changes from moment to moment as the light shifts and the angle changes. What is constant is their sheer overwhelming presence in our lives. How lucky we are, to live in their shadow!

About the Artist

I was born in Japan to a family of artists and lived as a child in Japan, India, Nepal, Mexico, Canada, and the Unites States. I have been creating art from a young age and studied painting in college with Nathan Oliveira, among others. Printmaking has been my primary medium for over 20 years and over the last few years oil painting as well. I have been inspired by the extraordinary landscapes of the Eastern Sierra for decades and have been lucky enough to call this place since 2019.

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www.noraakino.com