GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Hang Ups Fine Art gallery will host an opening reception tonight from 6-9 p.m. of an exhibit of paintings by Japanese artist Fumiyo Yoshikawa.

Yoshikawa draws upon Japanese painting techniques for some of the pieces, using dry pigments with a special glue called Nikawa.

Another painting of a fish and a lotus flower is created on a background of gold leaf, called kinpaku.

“I like fish. They are floating. It’s like painting my dream, something floating, free from anything,” Yoshikawa said.

The lotus flower symbolizes purity, a pure heart, Yoshikawa said.

“I paint dreams because they connect to the deeper mind that contains the whole range of human emotions: passion and fear, happiness and sadness, hope and trauma, and all memories,” said Yoshikawa in an artist statement.

One of the pieces is a sumi-ink, acrylic on canvas painting of Mount Garfield, with a stream of stardust shooting through the sky above the mountain.

Yoshikawa sees Mount Garfield when she drives her 3-year-old daughter to preschool in the morning.

“I’m impressed with the shape and the light and shadows. I wanted to combine the local figure and her (Madoka’s) dreams,” Yoshikawa said.

The mountain represents “stability, living forever.” The stardust represents a quick, short life, Yoshikawa said.

“The Japanese symbol always combine the mortal and the immortal,” Yoshikawa said.

The female image at the bottom of the painting represents Madoka.

“When I paint her, I somehow paint myself,” Yoshikawa said.

The exhibit includes several images of Madoka. Yoshikawa seeks to express the complicated emotions of the mother-child relationship.

“When I paint her dreaming face, I can find my inexhaustible love for her,” says Yoshikawa in her artist statement. “When I connect with this deep ocean of love for Madoka, I reconnect with my mother’s love for me.”

The exhibit will run through Feb. 28.

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.