West Coast painter Takako Yamaguchi comes back to Bates to discuss the development of her career in the visual arts. Yamaguchi’s landscapes have been described by Art in America describes as a synthesis of American Modernist painting with the stylized graphics of ukiyo-e prints. The Los Angeles Times furthers that comparison to include the influence of the abstracted patterns of Japanese textiles and screen paintings. Her newest paintings "celebrate art’s magnificently syncretic history and the ecstatic beauty of the natural world."

A native of Japan, Yamaguchi received a Presidential Fellowship to study at the Rhode Island School of Design after graduating from Bates. She later went on to earn her MFA from University of California, Santa Barbara. Yamaguchi has exhibited extensively internationally. She is represented in several collections, including the Nevada Museum of Art and the Long Beach Museum of Art. Yamaguchi has received several notable awards, including a Getty Fellowship from the California Community Foundation, the Gottleib Foundation, and COLA Individual Artist Fellowshhip form the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.