Even in the harsh desert, a sense of peace can grow
“If I didn’t believe in God, I would be dead many times over,” shares Misako Ōba, an artist and photographer based in the United States. Since 2004, she has sold numerous works of art in Europe and the United States. Her artworks, including the latest FAUSTUS, are in permanent storage at public institutions such as the European House of Photography and the National Library of France. In recent years, Ōba has been combining encaustic painting (an art style that uses beeswax and damar resin) with watercolor, oil painting, and lettering.
Her career began as a TV reporter. After graduating from university with a major in Spanish, Ōba worked with Japanese TV stations and in New York. She also enrolled in a graduate school in the United States where she majored in journalism and photography. She said, “I was able to work as a newscaster while also developing my photography. My dreams were coming true one by one. Both my career and my private life were fulfilling.”
But, even though she had everything, she felt empty inside. Then, while studying, she came across a verse from Ecclesiastes, “Everything is meaningless.” Ōba says, “King Solomon had everything. Hundreds of wives, authority, wealth, and wisdom. But he still felt a void within himself. I empathized with him and began reading the Bible. I came to realize that God alone can fill the hole in our heart.”
Ōba married and gave birth to a son, however, she lost him to a heart condition. She also went through a divorce not long after. Although exhausted, inside and out, she overcame each challenge with prayer and faith. In the hopes of making good out of her experiences, she took up a new career as an artist. Her road in art took a sharp turn when a rare disorder developed in her right pinky finger a few years later. Despite three surgeries, her finger had to be amputated. Ōba’s fine art book “FAUTUS” (which means ‘favorable’ or ‘fortunate’ in Latin) records this tragedy with a message that “what seems at first glance to be a sorrow can turn out to be a blessing if you look at it from another angle.”
Ōba’s recent artwork focuses on the journey of life, the transitory nature of things, and on light. In her painting series Stars and Desert, she overlaps her life with that of Job from the Old Testament. “Life can be cruel. Once I was overly blessed, but then lost my child, my family, and my finger . . . But believing and trusting in Jesus brought forth love each time and allowed me to give thanks for everything. Even in the harsh desert, a sense of peace can grow.”
Despite the hardships she went through over the past two decades, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
From Christian Shimbun, April 24, 2022
Translated by Hiromi Terukina