'There was something about the color and the peaceful look of it that struck a deep chord with me. But one image absorbed her more than others-a young female nude sitting on a rock, arms clasped around drawn-up legs, and gazing contemplatively at the nighttime sky. Their home had several paintings in it, some in oils and others more conventional Chinese and Suiboku paintings. 'My grandfather was the most influential person in my life,' she said recently. In a way, I have spent my life trying to capture that moment in my art.'Įven though her first memorable encounter came with her grandmother, it was her grandfather, a talented calligrapher with a keen appreciation of art, who spurred her artistic ambition. There was such stillness and perfection imbued in that single moment that even as a child, I wanted to touch and hold it, but in a way, I knew I couldn't. 'There was a feeling of eternity in it, and at the time I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. 'One of my earliest memories is of sunlight shining on a leaf suspended in a cobweb in a glassless window frame, moving to and fro in a soft breeze,' she wrote in 'The Drawings and Paintings of Kinuko Craft,' a book published in 2007.

She remembers her grandmother carrying her on her back and a defining moment when she first experienced the yearning of an artist who wants to possess the beauty of the world.

She recalls her grandparents in Japan, with whom she made her home during World War II while her parents were in Peking.

Beauty has been at the core of her existence since earliest childhood.

Sleeping Beauty by Mahlon F. Craft