Mariko Tabar was born in Tokyo and moved to United States to complete her education.  She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Loyola Marymount University.

Mariko started teaching art to children in 1990 while raising her family and continuing her career in teaching.  She presently teaches at a public school in Santa Barbara, California as an Art Specialist and teaches multi media arts to all grades.  Mariko joined the team of Art Walk for Kids/Adults (benefiting special needs children and adults) in February 2007.  Mariko teaches art to a group of developmentally disabled adults at Chagall House.  Mariko joined Santa Barbara Art Association in March 2008.

While raising her family, Mariko continued her passion of painting in her spare time. Mariko’s paintings were debuted at the Gallery Copaindart in Tokyo from June 29 to July 5, 2006.  She is now preparing for a new show at Gallery Copaindart from June 30-July 7, 2008. The subject matter for this show is flowers and architecture.

Her first collection of paintings is called “My Two Countries, My Soul.”  This collection is inspired by sceneries from both the US and Japan.

She has been living in the United States for over 35 years but Mariko frequently travels back to Japan. Reflections of two countries make who she is.   Both USA and Japan influence her paintings.

“When I travel, I always have my camera in hand so I can snap pictures of places and things that interest me.  It is from these photos that I get my inspiration to paint.  My current collection includes sceneries from Europe, where I traveled to recently.”
 
“My favorite medium is oil, though I occasionally work with chalk pastel, and watercolor. The subject matter for my pictures varies. In recent years I have had an emphasis on architectures, landscapes surrounding architectures and flowers. These subject matters interests me because flowers and landscapes are beautiful creations made by nature and architectures are by humans. While paying attention to architecture, I often come across with amazing details, interesting street corners, or things around them. I try to express how I capture this beautiful experience with my vision of colors. My wish is that viewers will be lured into the world within my paintings, and experience the peaceful feelings that I do, while I produce my work.  I paint in my studio with my favorite music playing from my iPod and my little dog on a sofa near by.”

Mariko resides in Goleta by Santa Barbara, California with her husband Frank.