Art Is

Makoto Fujimura is a contemporary artist and writer. His books include Art and Faith: A Theology of Making; Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture; Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering; and Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life. He lives in New Jersey.

“Fujimura does not instruct: he forms. He demonstrates, quietly and persistently, that beauty is not decoration. It is a way of knowing God.”—Michael Tang, Church TimesWinner, 2025 Christianity Today Book Award, Culture, Poetry, and the ArtsAIGA’s 50 Books 50 Covers competition winner “In this beautifully heartfelt text, Fujimura shows us that ‘Art is awareness,’ a journey of looking and listening that encompasses the worlds around and within us. The book is richly illustrated with examples of his work that derive from his faith and embody the generative acts of repairing the world and peacemaking.”—Christopher Rothko, author of Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out“Makoto Fujimura is well known as one of the major visual artists of his generation in North America and as a particularly sensitive and original interpreter of art’s spiritual dimension. This new book offers insights into his creative process and is a work of real freshness and beauty.”—Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury“When reading Makoto Fujimura’s Art Is, I hear song sparrows, bluebirds, and a goldfinch deliver an impossible peace with his paintings. Like William Blake’s, his faith is a door to his imagination. Working to the rhythm of slow art practice, Makoto Fujimura is a master painter very much in the present.”—Susie Ibarra, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, percussionist, sound artist“Through an intimate studio tour, Art Is invites creative souls into Mako’s painting process—fusing the alchemy of light with his theology of making. This luminous, heartfelt reverie fosters an embodied connection with God, humanity and nature—an inspiring read.”—Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, Pratt Institute“With his stunning visual art and his lyrical writing, Mako shows us that art is a journey toward beauty as a revelation of hope: for abundance emerging through scarcity; for love replacing transaction; for truth-telling subverting injustice; for light shining through darkness in both human history and human hearts. From its most fragile expressions to its powerful convergence of science, spirituality, and creativity, he plumbs beauty’s depths of meaning in this masterpiece for mind, body, and soul."—Ian Morgan Cron, author of The Road Back to You