Introduction of Members
美 has grown over the years since its birth in 2014.
Nina Belova
Nina is a junior at UTokyo. With a major is North American Studies, her academic interests focus on Cold War history and the counterculture of the 60’s and 70’s. Nina has a strong passion for art, in particular drawing and painting in all media, and it is this passion she intends to pursue as a career after graduation. Unlike most members of 美, Nina is not an exchange student, rather she finds herself in a unique situation. Her parents are both Russian, but she was born and raised in Japan. Despite having lived and studied in Japan her whole life, she still feels very much a foreigner.
Check out her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nina_belova2170/
Nina joined 美 in order to meet with people with different backgrounds and hopes to discover her own place in this world. She hopes that this site will be a gate that opens readers up to the fascinating world of the arts.
Sam Brustad
Sam is yet another student of the Japan in East Asia program at UTokyo, he made the move to Japan in 2013. Hailing from New Zealand, he has always taken huge inspiration from the nature and environment around him. In his spare time he likes reading, cooking, spending hours soaking in an onsen and frequent coffee dates. Finding comfort in a city like Tokyo takes time, one has to learn to embrace the crazy Shibuya scramble as well as the lazy days sitting under cherry trees. Such juxtaposition can feel extreme and often jarring.
Check out his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sam_brustad/
But for Sam, part of accepting that comes from the incredible art that bursts out of the most unexpected places in this city, which is why he is so excited to be working with 美. Every talk reminds him just how much beauty and creative energy permeates the air around us all the time.
Amaël Cognacq
Amaël is a bachelor student at UTokyo, officially doing Japan in East Asia studies but most truly studying anything he thinks is fun. Born in Paris but raised in really countryside South-West France, he grew up needing this balance of rural and urban environments, but big cities confuse him and even after 2 years in Tokyo he still gets lost in his own neighborhood. Introduced to Japanese culture through Pokémon at 5, his interest soon grew into a passion that made him move to Japan, potentially for good, at the age of 18. There he is discovering all new layers of Japan.
Check out his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amaelsan/
He joined 美 to meet with artists, to get inspired and to understand his inner push to himself go deeper into art, creative writing, literature some day.
Christy Chaeyeon Kim
Chaeyeon, who is called Christy by most, is a Korean Kiwi who also happens to be from America. Christy is also part of the PEAK Japan in East Asia program at the University of Tokyo. Christy constantly finds herself immersed in different cultures- having spent a year abroad in Beijing, China, she truly wishes to understand what it means to live with multiple identities. As for art, she has always had a peculiar interest in film and music, amazed by its ability to touch people’s lives.
美, by far, has been Christy’s way of staying in touch with the art world in the rather artless Komaba community, hoping to learn and be inspired by the works and ideas of brilliant minds. She especially loves looking at people’s eyes lighten up when they hear an artist’s story.
Marina Kondo
Marina, a senior majoring in Japan in East Asia, is probably the least artistic person in 美. Having been raised all her life in a small town on the east coast of the United States, she mostly enjoys watching Hollywood films, drinking glorious amounts of coffee, and excessively celebrating every and all holidays. Although she plans to continue pursuing international studies after graduation, Marina’s true passion lies in psychology and attempting to understand why humans are the way they are. Despite never having explored the artistic world herself, Marina finds art to be a fascinating glimpse of the artist’s thoughts and emotions.
She joined 美, not only to view the art of others, but to also find some inspiration that could blossom the artistic potential that she claims exists somewhere deep, deep inside of her. For now, Marina finds cooking and eating to be the best form of expressing herself.
Erin Kawazu
Erin is currently a college senior studying environmental sciences at the University of Tokyo. Having tried her hand at various art forms throughout her life, she has found her passion in visual arts and music. Nowadays, most of her visual work is digital, but she remembers spending hours painting on canvases half her size (though admittedly she is on the shorter side.)
For Erin, 美 is a community that allows her to reconnect with the art that she felt she had lost while studying the sciences at UTokyo. Through 美, she hopes to listen to inspiring talks, engage with interesting artists, and discover art through a plethora of dimensions.
Manasa Sitaram
Manasa is an Indian-born Singaporean child of the tropics who moved to Tokyo 3 years ago to satiate her obsession with big cities. Officially, Manasa is a a senior majoring in Japan in East Asia at UTokyo, but spends a lot of her time performing, exploring the city and trying to curb her Doritos addiction.
Hailing from an arts high school, she initially started 美 as a way to deal with the artistic loss she felt upon selling her soul to academia. As a bonus, the growth of the 美 community has also provided a platform for her (and her incredible team) to bask in the glow of some of Tokyo’s most spectacular creatives. Going forth, she hopes the legacy of 美 showcases not only the incredible lushness of the arts, but the simple yet potent power of sharing stories.
Sherry Zheng
Sherry, a senior studying about Japan and East Asia in Todai’s brand-spanking new English program. Describing herself as a Chinese-born Australian, she was born and lived in her hometown Sydney for eighteen years. She fills her gaps of free time with cooking, film photography and videography. After settling into life and university in Tokyo she began to realise that she actually loves film, quite a lot.
Find some of her out-dated work at https://sherry-zheng.squarespace.com/
She joined 美 when it first took off, realising her small campus was in dire need of some glittery lustre of creatives. It is creativity and art, and watching something grow from her own two hands that makes her truly happy.
