I was born in Numazu which is a city in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. I was born the third of four children to a Christian family. I have loved art ever since a young age and was constantly drawing and doodling in school and during my free time.
Hi, I’m Seira!
Art has always been more than a hobby to me, it is my passion! So after attending a semester at a university in Tokyo, I begged my father to let me study art in America. Finally, he agreed and I ended up at a Christian College in Pensacola, Florida where I studied Commercial Arts.
It was a dream made into a reality! I loved learning all about the different types of mediums and art. I loved working with oils, acrylics, watercolors, gouache, and charcoals. It was here that I truly began to grow into the artist that God was creating me to be.
In 2004 I started my professional career as a resident artist in a shop at a local mall, and then in 2005, I accepted my first professional commission to paint some oil portraits for a company of all of their founders. Later that same year I would graduate from PCC with a bachelor’s in Commercial Art.
From then until 2023 I would work on a variety of artistic projects in a variety of different mediums. I loved every project I worked on. But then in 2015, God started to stir up something new in me. I felt God speaking to me and He was asking me to paint for Him. So I fervently started praying, seeking Him, and asking Him what He would have me paint. Slowly He started revealing His heart to me and I would sketch the revelations He gave. This is why I call these paintings prophetic paintings.
When I say that God called me to paint prophetically, I am saying that I feel called to paint in such a way as to better express Him and His Love. The hope and prayer for my paintings is that they will cause people to stop and consider more deeply the beauty of our Heavenly King. There is a mystery and a majesty in our King that is beautiful, powerful, and so intimate.
This type of prophetic painting started in Kyoto in 2015. My husband and I had felt the Lord leading us to plant a church in the center of Kyoto, Japan. It was not easy work, but God was there and one day on a rare date to a coffee shop, we sat on a deck overlooking the Kamogawa River looking at the mountains surrounding the city. I started to feel His presence and I felt His voice impressing upon me, “Grace, grace, grace.” As I heard this I began to sketch what He was laying on my heart, and His voice was later confirmed when a waitress from the coffee shop came over to deliver our coffees, and when she saw my sketch she exclaimed it reminded her of grace. This sketch was the first of my prophetic portraits.
My Husband, five children, and I moved back to the States in 2017, and from 2021, I have been devoted to painting and expressing the truth of His revelations to me. These are the prophetic paintings born out of that time.