Tomiko Jones, sounds like a spy, a pirate, an adventure. She is a strong, bright light. In pursuing a passionate life, Tomiko is a truth-seeker, through her work as a photographer she allows the moment to reveal itself, for divinity in the natural world to seep in. Then she captures it. It takes patience to achieve this, quiet concentration and deliberation, then letting go to enter into the moment. To let the present be just itself and recognize the majestic, visual poetry that is inherent in everything. There are powerful stories in every last thing and Tomiko through her work as an artist, recognizes and honors the ones that resonate for her.

Tomiko and I had a conversation more than an interview in our time together. I would say that was an integral element to all my time with all the women I have sat down with in this project; give and take and holding a space of listening compassion. With most of the women I want to just illuminate their truth in that current moment between us, I try to speak as little as possible yet be fully engaged. Then there are a other women where the exchange is amplified by an actual conversation, an exchange of ideas that provides the strongest platform for the woman I’m sitting with to explore and reveal her truth as it comes to her.  Tomiko and I were deep in conversation about fear, vulnerability, refuge, art, from the minute I walked through her door and we continued that in her bedroom sanctuary, her “Cloud Palace” that Tomiko chose to hold our interview. I just turned on the camera and we were deep in it. Tomiko witnessed her own vulnerability and gave the gift of offering me the opportunity to join her, it was beautiful.

 

Read more at The Nature of Refuge