Today we’d like to introduce you to Mariko Yoshiwara.
Hi Mariko, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Mariko Yoshiwara, and more commonly known in the queer and art community as Riko. I use she/her pronouns. I was born and raised in the greater Portland metro area, specifically the East side. I studied education, received two master’s degrees, and became an elementary teacher before 25. I was raised by two educators, one of which was a skilled painter by hobby. Taking to art at a young age, I started drawing and building everything I could imagine with whatever scraps I could find. Art remained a hobby throughout my educational career. I found many ways to express myself creatively in the classroom. I was passionate about teaching and recognized as a distinguished educator while highly involved with the leadership team. Advocating for my family and the school community was of the utmost importance to me.
As was everyone, my world was turned upside down by the pandemic. A difficult and tiring job became an impossible and foreign practice. During the pandemic, I leaned into my art as a creative outlet to cope with the isolation, transition to remote teaching, and increasing social injustices. I connected more with my creative self, power, and dreams. When I returned to school in person, I realized something had dramatically shifted in me. Teaching was no longer my passion and had become the primary source of my growing ailments. Teaching was my purpose and identity and what had always fueled me. Walking away seemed scary, reactive, irresponsible, and seemingly impossible. Remaining as an educator in a high-needs environment began taking a toll on my emotional and physical health. After months of sitting in discomfort, anxiety, and stress, I felt no choice but to leave my career to find and feel joy again. I had yet to learn what that meant or would look like. I just knew it wasn’t where I was and what I was doing. I had no direction or plan, everything in front of me was unknown, and my only intention was to find a place that felt good and added joy to my life. After spending 13 years carrying the identity of a teacher, it was an easy way to describe who I was and what I did. Now, it is not as easy. I am a barista most mornings in a neighborhood coffee shop in SE Portland. I fill my afternoons creating and growing my art business around pyrography. I spend my life doing the things I love, connecting with people, and living purposefully.
After exploring and grounding my purpose, I discovered something. Living as authentically as possible and connecting with people and communities to help cultivate deeper human experience and connections was what I had always found joy in. How I engaged with my purpose and expressed it changed and may continue to reshape for the rest of my life. I engage in opportunities that allow me to fulfill my purpose, especially through art expression. I began Riko Burns, a small business centered around pyrography and wood-burning art. I transferred my drawing skills to burning, laying pieces of my creative self into the hands of others. I love to collaborate and connect with the growing art community. I am dedicated to growing the community by leading workshops that encourage the artist in everyone to express themselves creatively in whatever way moves them. Expression is a way to share our stories and experiences with the world. Expression allows an opportunity to be seen from a different perspective. Perhaps even building understanding and empathy across our communities. This is my purpose; connect, inspire, lift, and share.
I am supported by my many communities, family, and dear friends. Riko Burns would not have been possible without the communities I am dedicated to. To the people who empowered me as a BIPOC queer, the people who have stayed connected through dodgeball, kickball, softball, and pool, those who have worked alongside me in education, and those who have stayed connected throughout the years, I thank them. Their support, encouragement, love, and vision have helped me grow into the person I am today and the space I joyously reside in.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In the beginning, the path to my career and career itself was a well-mapped, smooth road. I knew early childhood development and teaching was my passion from the beginning of my continued education. I followed the path to becoming a teacher. I went to the most highly ranked and progressive Master in Arts program on the West Coast. I landed an education position in my desired district, Portland Public Schools, working with historically underserved communities and families. It was never an easy job, but I was passionate, motivated, and fulfilled. As an educator, I met challenge after challenge, obstacle after obstacle, and miles of red tape in the prescribed system. Attempting to serve families and students with best practices became more and more impossible. It ultimately felt as if it was slowly eating at my soul. My passion was dying, and frustration, stress, and anxiety rose. My day-to-day was not joyful. I dreaded going to work but felt stuck. My identity and everything I had planned for my life was in balance. I thought I would retire as a public educator. I became stagnant and felt trapped. There was this growing pain of unfulfilled experiences. I left teaching a year ago without a plan. I am now surrounded by a life I could never have imagined, with opportunities ahead of me that I could never have dreamed up in my dreamiest of dreams. My biggest obstacle and challenge has been getting out of my own way to move through the world with intention, purpose, and joy. I am not allowing fear of the unknown to trap or inhibit me from moving forward and growing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Since leaving education, I have established a small art business, Riko Burns. I am taking workshops to learn how to navigate the business world and how to be an entrepreneur. The business world and the public education system are highly different machines. I am learning and growing in so many different ways. I get to be creative every day in my business and physical art. I am making and selling my art. I am sharing my stories and experiences through writing and spoken word. I am connecting with new communities and feeling an abundance of opportunities in the future, all of which are unknown.
What changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I lead my business and life in a direction that fulfills my purpose to connect, inspire, lift, and share. In the next 5-10 years, I want to see Riko Burns grow into more than selling art. I want to see it as a vehicle to create opportunities for individuals to open themselves up to their creative expressions, inspire individuals to listen to their joys, and lead with courage. I want workshops exploring creative expression through writing, storytelling, visual arts, and all other expressions that exist and evolve. I want to create safe spaces for marginalized voices to express themselves, build confidence and courage, and be heard by the masses. I want to use my voice in various settings and platforms to inspire, empower and motivate growth and change. It is time we share quiet voices, listen to new narratives, and take a different perspective as we engage with our communities.
Pricing:
- Guitar – $300
- Mountain – $200
- Heart – $250
- Whale – $300
- Commission Pieces – Contact for quote
Contact Info:
- Website: rikoburns.com
- Instagram: riko.burns
Image Credits
Esther Blasetti-Godoy
