from the introduction to SPLENDORGANUM...

for well over a decade and a half i've shared creative head/work spaces with Ms Iwata, and have collaborated with her on many different projects in a multitude of mediums. these creative journeys are uniformly accompanied by detailed discussions regarding techniques, perspective, meaning and the content of the work at hand. i've regularly seen her very precise and diverse hand drawn works- hard line lettering, logos, figures and characters, etc- mistaken for computer generated productions. yet, for the present work, there was a distinct stylistic and technical departure- an unusually solitary and soundless meditation surrounded the genesis of these mythic works. put another way, these potentially limitless organic rorschachs are born from a type of automatism. however, absonant to formal surrealist trance states- where the pen flows 'automatically' in disregard to conscious structure, choice and logic- these faux organic forms are semi-directed channelings, expanding and reaching out from deep within the mysterious space from which all things flow. for well over a year, in between discussions of the kind of ideas that can be found in works like 'The Inner Lives Of Minerals, Plants, And Animals' by Manly P. Hall, and Peter Tompkins' 'The Secret Life Of Plants', i would notice her slip into the drafting table chair and 'go silent', emerging many, many hours later with yet another spontaneous, mind-born bio-form. inevitably, we'd contemplate these metaphysical creations for hours, turning them/re-seeing them at 90 and 180 degrees, etc. only once was the question asked by me- "but what are these?" and like any creator who only wants what's best for their created, her answer was direct, unassuming and open: "the image wants to grow."
-dustin thomas donaldson