sprawling, five-panel Manifold 5 use abstracted silhouette imagery (a river, clouds, robes, elephants, votive candles, geyser forms) taken from Japanese screens and other Eastern sources; they function as patterns or dark grounds flipping between positive shapes and negative space. The contrasting Serrulata (in translation, cherry tree) layers and presses together multiple processes—patterns, pours, Sumi ink-like splotches, and drips of dark blue, black and gray—creating patterns on a shell pink ground to suggest cherry blossoms and themes of disruption, dispersal, decay and transience. Early biography and career Takenaga was born in North Platte, Nebraska in 1949. She earned a BFA (Art and English, 1972) and MFA (1978) from University of Colorado Boulder. Her graduate studies focused on printmaking and took place against a backdrop of 1970s post-psychedelic consciousness raising, interest in the Eastern thought and second-wave feminism; they culminated in a 52-foot, gridded mural-installation, Here to Here, Sense and Nonsense (1978), composed of several dozen abstract-patterned lithographs. After receiving her MFA, Takenaga taught at Washington University and University of Denver, before moving to New York City and joining the faculty of Williams College in Massachusetts in 1985. During this time, she produced large-scale installations combining elements like rocks and cut and patterned paper that alluded to Zen raked gardens; their balance of asymmetrical elements, spatial ambiguity, black graphic markmaking, and subtle color explored the role of Japanese-American cultural identity in her art. Takenaga presented in solo exhibitions at A.I.R. Gallery and Art in General, and in group shows at the Boston Center for the Arts, Asian American Arts Centre and Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), among others.Sherman, Mary, "NEFA Fellowship Recipients," Boston Herald, September 13, 1992. In the 1990s, Takenaga turned to enormous (often twenty-foot-long) acrylic paintings constructed from hollow wooden doors, which used enigmatic abstract shapes and symbols drawn from science, logic and classical Eastern art. The Long Resonance (1991) is a representative work; it features a cloud-like expanse breaking into a dark, rectangular ground decorated with icons, silhouettes (animals or Japanese figures) and garlands of red, dotted lines that presage her future paintings. In subsequent work, she dramatically reduced her scale to intimate () abstractions eliminating signage and recognizable elements. Nevus (1997) and Tortuca (1998) employ whimsical, intricate spirals overlaid on modulated grounds of beige and brown. Inspired by an offhand observation of spiraling tufts of hair on her dog, these forms evolved into Takenaga's mature work when she