Edi Matsumoto came to the U.S. from Japan for a nursing program. She became a nursing assistant, a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner. And then 15 years ago her husband, a local physician, recognized a serious artist in her and changed the trajectory of her life.
After 28 years in her last position, Matsumoto recently retired and can spend all day in the studio space she is renting from the Church of the Wayfarer in Carmel. Its big windows look out at a sun-filled church garden. “They love artists here,” she says. Currently there are five artists in the big building at Lincoln and 7th.
In the late ’80s, when Matsumoto was a teenager in Japan, she read about the work of Mother Teresa. Moved, she made a trip to Kalighat, a hospice for the sick, destitute and dying, where she volunteered to feed people. Soon she wanted to be able to offer more, and decided to study nursing.
But being a nurse isn’t the be-all and end-all for Matsumoto. Her husband, Alfred Sadler, encouraged her to paint after seeing a sketch she made. “He is an amazing guy,” she says of Sadler.
It took her seven years to get her master’s from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, working in the hospital and moving through one class per semester.
“I guess I knew it was somewhere in me,” she says about her art. “My great-grandfather was a professional Japanese artist.”
Her first exhibit was a presentation of her thesis. Titled Medical Professions, it showed the stress and emotional burden on health professionals.
Her second and most recent exhibit, Goddesses and Warriors, was inspired by the Me Too movement. It opened briefly in March 2020, but closed after a week – postponed for healthier, better times. Matsumoto wanted to create images of strong women, beautiful “inside and outside,” who are not afraid to stand up against discrimination. One such creation is La Guerrera, an image of a young woman Matsumoto met in Bora Bora in the South Pacific. “She is representing this untraditional beauty,” the artist says. “She is strong and determined, walking through the ocean, splashing water, and has this goddess quality.
“I’m still struggling with this title,” Matsumoto says of La Guerrera, which means female warrior. She understands the limitations – she is a Japanese woman painting a South Pacific woman with a Spanish title. But she wanted a single word and says English doesn’t offer any. Besides, she doesn’t mind the international vibe. “I’m an artist, I’m a nurse, I’m Japanese and I’m American,” she says. “I consider everything. My name is Edi Matsumoto and I include everything.”