While in Japan in January we met a very special, very cool person, Veronica Ikonnikova. She is a Ukrainian architect living in Tokyo, though it’s more accurate to say, she is an artist living in Tokyo. She’s an a visual artist spanning styles beyond simply illustration, and photography. And an architect with a mind for more than simply execution. She observes, she feeds on all around her, and we are lucky to know her.

here’s a photo I took of her I the streets of Tokyo.

Now, if you’ll kindly press play…

I should actually explain how we found Veronika in the first place. It all began with my obsession over Modular Synthesis. There’s an artist named r beny who makes some of the most beautiful music with Modular synths, and of course I follow him on instagram! He had posted about a book of illustrations of Tokyo by another artist on instagram whose handle is @Veronika.ikn (or her other account @Veronika_ikn). He explained that she Is a Ukrainian artist living in Tokyo and had illustrated the world around her putting it into a book. I loved it, so I ordered it. I also posted about I on my social media after ordering it, tagging Veronika and telling about her work. She saw this, we spoke on instagram, and we were off! A friendship had begun!

So we found a perfect, but short moment to meet up in Japan, and almost immediately upon our return to Portland we had our second encounter with Veronika. She was in town on a job for her the architecture firm she works for. So, we took her to Mt. Tabor!

Kindly Press Play again!

This audio, and this image (captured simultaneously) are Rūta explaining that someone keeps returning to this post to write the same poem over and over. Over and over because it keeps getting re-painted, or, painted over!

(an old photo of mine with the poem)

I love being the model.

So does Rūta.

This is only the beginning, other adventures have already proven the longevity of our friendship with Veronika, including her taking Rūta’s sister, father, and sister’s partner Chris all around Kyoto exploring. She is, as I said before, a wonderful person.