Masako Roberts's Projects

MFA Alumni

Major: Painting

Graduation Year: 2001

Artist Statement:

“Laundry Day” series, a total of twenty four paintings, explores my personal space. I have house clutter, laundry days, life with pets, and an art studio. They evoke my mundane.

The clutter is a metaphor for my everyday life. The objects are loose, insignificant, and attached. The things become white noise, patterns, and shapes. Viewers’ eyes move each color and shape from one piece to another through each painting.

In many ways, the cats in my work are reflections of myself. I sometimes feel stuck in the apartment, especially in the last fourteen months. At the same time, I feel safe, secure, and loved. Cats are quirky, free-spirited, reserved, or affectionate selfishly. They are great additions of colors and shapes to clutter, but with the addition of their peculiar demeanor. Cats are like spices in cooking. I am the spice in the family.

Biography:

Masako Roberts www.masakoroberts.com @mdogcolor

Masako Roberts was born and raised in Kyoto, 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 in 2001. Beginning her graduate study, she dropped oil painting at once and started working on sculptures using plaster, fabric, and store-bought items. She began gouache painting in 2018. Aside from her studio work, her pet portraits can be commissioned via Etsy where she is known as Dog Color. She lives in Newark, New Jersey with her husband and four cats.