May 2, 2004

Willow Glen, Cambrian artists show work at Stanford

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Stanford University is known for its gifts of art to the South Bay communities around it, but who would suspect local artists to show their paintings in the Allen Center for Integrated Systems, the Global Climate & Energy Project and the Psychology Department?

Most people don’t think of art works around semiconductors or climatology maps, but the three buildings house paintings by Willow Glen artists Kayomi Harai and Lucy Liew. Called “Reflections,” the exhibit—which also includes carved cardboard by Half Moon Bay artist Judy Johnson-Williams—is a melange of really interesting art from the three women. The exhibit runs through May 20, and the artwork is for sale.

Liew was born in Malaysia and moved to the United States in 1996 when she married. She initially lived in Cupertino, but moved to Willow Glen in 1998. The artist and art teacher has a degree from West Surrey College of Art and Design in England. Her initial works were painted textiles, but she began teaching and loved it.

“I love teaching,” she said. “Both of my parents are teachers. I have the best of both worlds in that I am able to express myself and be able to paint and to help the creativity come out of someone else.”

Liew now teaches two days a week at Achiever Christian School and two days at home. The Achiever program is an after school arts program. She also offers a summer art camp and adult classes. The summer camp is for children age 5 and over and includes drawing, painting and printmaking. It is from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and costs $175. A five-day workshop combines creative writing and illustration. A writing teacher joins her and the children produce an illustrated book. That class costs $170 with a $15 materials fee. For more information about the classes, visit www.lucyliewart.com.

Liew’s impressive designs are taken from trips she went on with her father to the island of Borneo, where there are over 200 different native groups. Some of these designs show actual events on the island and others are designs developed with the colors and fluidity of the native culture. Her work is also being shown for sale at two galleries in Asia and at a coffee shop in San Francisco. She also has an upcoming art show at Santa Clara’s Triton Museum June 5-6.

“Early on some of the designs are chaotic. Bringing them together is a wonderful thing. I let the painting evolve and in the midst of the chaos, I find order.”

Harai, who lives on the border of Willow Glen and Cambrian Park, loves animals and it shows in her work. Among the many pictures she has on exhibit at Stanford are a number of works with tigers. “There are no tigers in Japan,” where she was born and raised, she says, but she loves all animals, especially the expressive faces of tigers. She also has works with dragons, ferrets and wolves. “I study lots of animals at the zoo, in photos, books and magazines. But tigers are my favorite.”

The mother of 4-year-old twins who attend afternoon preschool, Harai is also a commercial artist who draws cats, dogs and other animals for T-shirts, collectors’ plates, jigsaw puzzles and garden flags. She has an agent on the East Coast who licenses her images.

For more information about the Reflections exhibit, contact Stanford Art Spaces Web site at http://cis.standford.edu/marigros or contact the curator, Marilyn Grossman, at (650) 725-3622 or by e-mail at marigros@cis.stanford.edu.