Artist Statement
Bio
Born and raised in Kobe, Japan, Mika Negishi Laidlaw has been working both in the U. S. and Japan. She currently teaches as an Associate Professor of Art at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She earned B.A. in Studio Art from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in 1994. From 1994 to 1997, she worked as a ceramic apprentice at Akishino Pottery in Nara-City, Japan, and studied traditional pottery under Masaya Imanishi. In 2000, She received her M.F.A. in Ceramics from Kansas State University where she met her lifetime mentor Yoshiro Ikeda. Other accomplishments include; recipient of 2001 McKnight Artist Residencies for Ceramic Artist at Northern Clay Center, Summer Artist Residence at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Art in 2003, and 2004 Emerging Artist at the annual conference of National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in Indianapolis, demonstrator of 2006 NCECA in Portland, OR, and recipient of 2011 and 2006 McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Artists. She exhibited nationally and internationally including, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Guam, and Spain. Mika lives in Mankato, Minnesota with her husband Les and two small children.