Truly, the influences of Eastern and Western Cultures are interwoven in her art and her soul.  Even in her choice of paper, for her multi-cultured printmaking works of art, she treasures the time honored tradition of handmade Japanese paper.  

While still very young, she lived a life filled with artistic expansion, in the face of bias & stereotyping.  Yet thundering forward in a quest for knowledge, she fuelled her art with educational commentary and political insight.  

 

Her work encourages the observer to see beyond what the marketers of mass mind-set preach, ought to be.

The years were few in number, but the road was long, though blessed with guides for Akemi Ohira's journey to Charlottesville, Virginia.  

 

"I deconstruct and reconstruct forms so the public can observe the "new idea" through their own memories and experiences, thus denying an invasion of the preprogrammed, obvious."

 

It is therefore through the visual language of her art, that Professor Ohira is best able to give a renaissance to the spirit of The Human Being.

Growing up in the very different culture of the United States was at first a challenge, as communicating with children her age, all of whom spoke a language she could not possibly understand, she was forced to use familiar forms and shapes to decode her intentions to her classmates and new friends.  However, the two years it took her to learn English to her satisfaction, (by repeatedly watching “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Sound of Music” and “The Blues Brothers”) tuned out to be an artistic blessing for her ever widening audience.