A part of this NEW works in this current series: Included for the Global Warming in REAL Exhibition at the Museum of Encaustic (U.S.A.) and online (view from here).
— September 13 through November 2, 2025 —
You will see the images below – The brown panels of “Limit Love, Limit Warming a, b, c, and d.’ More details are below.
The very first piece that I created for this series (photo below) “Predicted” became a part of the museum’s permanent collection in the United States as you may have read the article. In this work as well as in the another work (photo below) “La Direction,” which is my new work, you can see the iconic and historical graph ‘Keeling Curve.‘ Some of new works from this series were at my solo exhibition [In and Out of the Blue] in New York City, 2025.
“Limit Love, Limit Warming a, b, c, and d.’ are from “Limit Love, Limit Warming a, b, c, and d,‘ 2025, Misako OBA. Encaustic, watercolor, oil, pigment ink transfer, graph bars-encaustic monotype, paper on cradled wood panel.
Each piece in the series blends factual data abstractly with both ancient and contemporary elements. These “Don’t Limid Love, Limit Warming” works in the series feature bar graphs showing modeled global GHG emissions under various future scenarios, focusing on a projected cross-section of 2030 for panel b, 2050 for the panel c, 2100 for the panel d. What happens depends on the actions we take today.
I believe we are on Earth to love and be loved—to care for one another and our planet.
Many of my previous and current art series are related to love. And as you may know from my blog posts or my social media, I have been developing my climate-themed series named “How Can You Show Love…?” since 2022.The theme ultimately is about love and relationships.
This body of work explores love, loss, and global warming, drawing from my personal experiences traveling and living around the world amid increasing climate disasters and extreme heat. I’m literally experiencing this summer and for recent years. You may be, too.
Even if you are not particularly interested in climate change, the fact is the global temperature is getting higher, hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are growing more intense and powerful as global temperatures rise, and pollution is a continuing problem.
The medium of encaustic—a temperature-sensitive material—deepens the conceptual nature of the work, visually and symbolically responding to heat.
Ultimately, it’s about love: how we show it, how we protect it, and how we extend it to each other and the Earth.
Inspired by statistics and information published by research authorities such as IPCC or NASA.
*For all four sides of a cradled wood panels: Applied the traditional Japanese Shou-Sugi-Ban (焼杉板) technique—burning the surface to create a rich brown tone and natural beauty while enhancing durability and preservation. The charred finish resonates with the history of this method and echoes contemporary wildfires, linking my process to resilience and environmental change.
This is a visual statement calling for awareness and compassion. I aim to connect past and present, integrating themes from ancient creation stories to our current environmental reality. To remind viewers of the sacredness of life and the planet, from Genesis to the future.
“Resilience” I, II, and III in this series
[About the Resilience I, II, and III] II and III are on the top in this page.
Turmoil, chaos, hardships, grief and/or confusion would occur in life. Even disasters…. As covering intentionally with white, it became more beautiful with depth and complexity than just a simple white.
The past events in our lives and the emotions we experienced are layered in the painting by creating and stacking them in various colors, patterns, and collages. There are bible verses and computer language (code) hidden and data transferred onto wax (encaustic) as my signature style.
By deliberately covering the colors and mark-makings, which represent what we went through including calamities and both painful and joyful events in our lives with a white, I am not attempting to hide the “ugly” things, but to express the aspect of redefined beauty.
Just like our life as human beings, beauty will be enhanced by depth and complexity. Just like those who had tears and scars must have accumulated more layers of life experience hold beauty inside.
By going through experiences, we have gotten more layers within us.
Then the white becomes more intriguing than just a simple innocent white.
New white layer.
After the storm, we arrive in better and brighter place with the complexity beneath.
In life’s journey, there are or there will be more than one way to choose from and walk on. It will make it different in your life. However, it can be both right if we walk with God, I figured. So, we don’t have to worry too much! Either way would be fine as long as you try to be righteous. Probably there’s no perfect way on earth. The image can be the milky wayS in the sky with milk and honey(?!) or streams in the desert. How do you see? There is bible verse and computer language (code) and data transferred onto wax (encaustic) as my signature style.
I personally really feel global warming because of extreme summer heat year by year and people in Japan are dying due to the extreme heat every summer in recent years, and as I observed more disasters like floods in the world due to climate change, my interest grew and the journey of climate-change-related series began.
I referred to the chart provided by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The upper part of the chart shows two scenarios for the concentration of atmospheric CO2 in the atmosphere. The lower part of the chart shows the same two scenarios, but for production rate (metric gigatons of carbon per year).
To request pricing, feel free to Contact us with the title.
Sea ice at both the top and bottom of the planet continued its decline in 2024. In the waters around Antarctica, ice coverage shrank to near-historic lows for the third year in a row. NASA’s Sea ice scientist, Linette Boisvert says “Sea ice prevents much of the exchange of heat and moisture from the relatively warm ocean to the atmosphere above it.”
*The title ‘GRACE’ I put in these painting stands for NASA’s satellites ‘Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment’ (GRACE) and God’s grace as I imply the double meanings.
I created the works based on the facts and concerns that “Antarctica is losing ice mass (melting) at an average rate of about 150 billion tons per year, and Greenland is losing about 270 billion tons per year, adding to sea level rise.
This is important because the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica store about two-thirds of all the fresh water on Earth. They are losing ice due to the ongoing warming of the Earth’s surface and ocean. Meltwater coming from these ice sheets is responsible for about one-third of the global average rise in sea level since 1993.”
“From GRACE I” and “From GRACE II” are about the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. I was referring to the research data from the previous year. It is about ice mass measurement.
(To view more images, Click < or >. Ready to hang without framing -Four side edges are treated with Sho Sugi Ban*. Frame option.). The land ice sheets in both Antarctica and Greenland have been losing mass since 2002. It’s losing ice due to the ongoing warming of the Earth’s surface and ocean. How do you take action to sustain Earth, and not to possibly lose your loved ones in increasing disasters that are consequences of global warming? The Cool-tone in the piece stands for our hope, peace, and expecting a good future.
Misako OBA 