Ito and Sarmiento have made a daily practice of creating floral still lifes using watercolor and colored pencil to better study detail and color and as a personal reflection of skin tone and stereotypes.  

This project, flores de color treats flowers as a universal language understood by people from various social and cultural backgrounds. Flowers not only surround us in our daily environment but can unify us culturally as we also use flowers for occasions of celebration, mourning, and representations of cultural identity. Flowers reflect our lives as they parallel the poetic cycle of life and death.

Fuko Ito was born and raised in Kobe, Japan where she grew her love from drawing and storytelling through reading books and comic. She moved to the United States to study printmaking and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Kansas. She currently resides and works in Lawrence, Kansas as an artist and educator. Through drawing and image-making, Fuko hopes to communicate ideas and storied of her experiences translated in a multitude of ways.

Eugene Sarmiento was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He studied printmaking at the University of Texas, Arlington, and is pursuing his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Kansas. Eugene drew while growing and became obsessed with the action created through drawing—the exploration of mark making and making “acceptable” messes. In addition to drawing, he enjoys exploring other medium including painting, printmaking, bookmaking, and installation.