ABOUT AKEMI ALCHEMY
Artist | Painter | Facilitator
Artist Statement
I create visionary art meant to make the present a more beautiful place and to inspire others to discover their own creative powers. In my practice, I commit to both deeply seeing the world as it is, and imagining beyond its confines into what it could be. Working with acrylic and oils, I create paintings by building subtle layers of light, dark, and color, bringing the image into more definition and vibrancy over time. With this method, I create harmony between structure and flow, finding balance within polarity. I aim to invite viewers into seeing the full beauty of existence, by both rendering concrete forms and also making visible the vibrations, energy, sacred symbols, and symmetry that connects all of life.
Artist Bio
Akemi is a visionary artist, singer, and facilitator who invites others into a more vibrant reality through authentic self-expression. Born in 1990 in Orange County, CA, she discovered an early love for drawing and singing, but stopped creating freely as she became indoctrinated into "the real world", which prepared her for "a real job" that didn't involve art. After graduating from UCLA with a BA in Sociology, she spent the next ten years working at a series of political non-profits and trying to convince herself she liked it. It was obviously not the right fit, because she kept getting laid off from these. Each layoff pointed her towards deeper discovery of her true essence, through expanded states of consciousness, deep friendships, and radical new ways of living, all of which helped her unlock her long-buried creative passions.
In 2018, she started drawing and singing again, and in 2019, she started a spiritual soul band with her friends called Mystic Tiger. In 2022, she started taking painting classes with Amanda Sage and Vitra Academy, and exhibited & sold her works at fairs and her band's concerts. In 2023, she was selected to attend two week-long visionary painting intensives, one of which at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in upstate New York. In 2024, she launched her online art shop and participated in her first group show, "Keepers of Memory: Women of the Diaspora and Displacement" in Los Angeles.
When she's not painting, Akemi can be found facilitating meditation groups in her living room, teaching creative expression to kids, and singing as a professional caroler during the holidays.