There has been a long tradition of influence emanating from the Far East in Northwest art. Painters such as Mark Toby and Morris Graves were absorbed by Japanese aesthetics and Zen Buddhism. Painter Ako Lindley embodies that tradition in reverse. Born in Tokyo, Ako successfully melds her Japanese heritage with western art tradition. Like the Japanese Shin Hanga artists of the Ukiyoe revival, she is fascinated by western perspective and verisimilitude, but still grounded in the Japanese penchant for flattening pictorial space to accentuate its decorative integrity. Her paintings of barns in the Skagit Valley give these old structures an exotic flair missed by artists more familiar with them.

Ms. Lindley earned her degree in art and graphic design from California State University at San Jose. Her early experiences working in the art department of International Paper Company and the Oakland Tribune provided a working discipline that has served well in her subsequent and continuing pursuit of fine art. She currently maintains a studio in Pioneer Square, Seattle.