Painted in 2026, Kokeshi Mio is an original painting by artist John Carstens, rendered in acrylic ink and thick gel medium on a cradled wood panel measuring 36 x 30 x 1.5 inches.
Drawing on the serene iconography of traditional Japanese kokeshi dolls, the artist reconstructs a closed-eyed, smiling face through a dense field of stencil applied dots — a technique built from decades of work spanning architecture, computer programming, and design.
Layers of pigmented acrylic ink are built up with gel medium to create a luminous, plexiglass-like surface, while a vinyl pochoir process allows for crisp, controlled patterning even at this heavier, dimensional thickness. The palette shifts from radiant golds at the center of the face to cascading teals, greens, and corals through the hair.
The artist’s ongoing exploration of the threshold between abstraction and figuration and the human instinct to find recognizable form within fields of random pattern. The result is a work that operates simultaneously as portrait and pattern study, inviting close inspection of its individual marks as well as distant appreciation of its cohesive, glowing whole.
