Yumiko Kayukawa hails from Sapporo Japan and has already made a name for herself early in her career for her candy-bright pop paintings of fashionable young women, animals, and traditional Japanese motifs. Yumiko's work blends fashion illustration, sharp iconic graphics, and meticulously rendered flora and fauna to create images that evoke a dreamy and enigmatically erotic tone. The girls in Yumiko's paintings are mysterious and elusive, using images of both innocence and fetishes, in a sexy, subtle way, yet always engaging the viewer with direct eye contact. The fantasy of these dream girls is mixed with the realistic depictions of the natural world... insects, birds, and animals are always present, bringing a sense of the messy, real world crashing joyfully into the lives of these pristine, icy beauties. Traditional Japanese flower motifs and kanji characters used in an untraditional way round out the compositions creating a jolting, modern tone to the paintings.