Kristin Mitsu Shiga
Maker, educator
Kristin Mitsu Shiga is a hapa artist and educator who splits her time between Portland, Oregon and the Big Island of Hawai’i.
Kristin began her education in the field of architecture, but after forays into art history and furniture-making, found her true calling in metal-smithing. Since then, her career has spanned various industries from nonprofit administration to stop-motion animation.
Coming from a long line of educators, Kristin values her role as teacher above all and has had the opportunity to teach metal-smithing and book arts at institutions around the world including Penland, Arrowmont and Haystack schools of craft. Additionally, she has built metals studios and established programs for adults and youth across North America,
including three that continue to thrive in New York, Oregon and Hawai’i.
As a maker, Kristin pursues projects that tell a story and actively engage her audience. She is deeply inspired by her participation in artist collaboration events around the world, such as the EMMA International Collaboration in Canada, CollaboratioNZ in New Zealand, the Hawai’i Artist Collaboration and Frogwood in Portland, Oregon.
Kristin’s work has been shown internationally and is included in several notable collections, including the Kamm Artful Teapot Collection and the Permanent Collection of the White House. You can find her published in numerous books and magazines, including Art Jewelry Today, The Art of Enameling, Metalsmith’s 2017 Exhibition in Print, and several of Lark’s 500 Series books. In 2010, she was featured with a segment on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s popular television show, Artbeat.
In addition to her career as a maker, Kristin has been teaching business practices and providing bookkeeping and tax prep services to artists for over 30 years. While she is not a CPA, her first-hand experience navigating the ever-changing landscape of making a living as a self-employed artist makes her uniquely suited to guide others on the same path.
In 2017, Kristin opened ‘Okina Jewelry, a tiny teaching studio and jewelry gallery on the Big Island of Hawai’i.