For Nancy Enkoji her artwork is reflective of everyday life. Objects found on walks in the city find their way into an altar piece or sculpture. Everyday occurrences become the theme for a painting; gardens appear and if it is the year of the Rabbit, rabbits abound. Her drawings and paintings become a visual journal of her likes, dislikes and current passions.
The Geisha has become her alter ego. Often misunderstood by western cultures she juxtaposes them into Western life. Instead of the traditional getas, they don cowboy boots; cowboy hats replace traditional headwear and lassos replace fans Her favorite baseball players become Samurai warriors, though still swinging swords they also carry their baseball mitts.
Nancy receives much joy inserting her very modern, western lifestyle into tradition and old world grace and charm and she spends a lot of time laughing as she paints or builds her pieces.

Our Story

Art within my family from my mother and from my father can be traced through the generations. Creativity was always present on both sides of the family. My mother, Mabel Jingu Enkoji was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and was raised in the Japanese Tea Garden in Brakenridge Park. She and her mother, father, two brothers and five sisters lived in the garden until my mother was in high school. You can take a look at the garden here: https://japaneseteagardensa.org/

While my mother's father was a painter and her mother a poet, my mother did some painting but was extraordinary in her craft of ceramics. From the time I was four years old she would take me to her first classes in pottery and for many years studied and perfected her craft in sculpture and pottery.

My father was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He is often found collecting clippings from the garden to sketch or create ink paintings. We have oil paintings that he did in his early days of painting