The years were few in number, but the road was long, though blessed with guides for Akemi Ohira's journey to Charlottesville, Virginia.

Born Chinese, but in Japan, she received Japanese citizenship (no small accomplishment), but moved to the United States as a child, where she became an American citizen at Monticello on July 4th 1994. Thomas Jefferson would have been so proud.

Growing up in the very different culture of the United States was at first a challenge, as communicating with children her age, all of whom spoke a language she could not possibly understand, she was forced to use familiar forms and shapes to decode her intentions to her classmates and new friends. However, the two years it took her to learn English to her satisfaction, (by repeatedly watching “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Sound of Music” and “The Blues Brothers”) tuned out to be an artistic blessing for her ever widening audience.

Truly, the influences of Eastern and Western Cultures are interwoven in her art and her soul. Even in her choice of paper, for her multi-cultured printmaking works of art, she treasures the time honored tradition of handmade Japanese paper.

While still very young, she lived a life filled with artistic expansion, in the face of bias & stereotyping. Yet thundering forward in a quest for knowledge, she fuelled her art with educational commentary and political insight.

Her work encourages the observer to see beyond what the marketers of mass mind-set preach, ought to be.

"I deconstruct and reconstruct forms so the public can observe the "new idea" through their own memories and experiences, thus denying an invasion of the preprogrammed, obvious."

It is therefore through the visual language of her art, that Professor Ohira is best able to give a renaissance to the spirit of The Human Being.

The life and career of Maceo Jeffries stands as a testament to the creative ability of the human spirit. A native of Duquwane, PA, he started sculpting at age seven and has since traveled the world as a self-taught sculptor, a civil engineer, and an entrepreneur & educator.

While embracing the tapestry of American social culture, his art in bronze, has memorialized such diverse American experiences as Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidents George Washington & George Herbert Bush. His true legacy however, is providing the world with a talent that captures the essence of the human character -- its suffering, its spirit, its longing to live free, and even its humor and oft forgot, joys.

During a tour of duty in Germany, while serving in the US Army in the turbulent 1960's, he was trained as a draftsman. Once out of uniform, he spent the next ten years working as a civil engineer and teaching himself and enjoying his new pastime: sculpting. However, by the early eighties, his hobby had become a second career, with numerous commissions for his work, including winning the opportunity to reproduce a miniature merchandisable version of the Frederick Hart Sculpture honoring Vietnam Veterans.

Often as he works on clay statues, powerful emotions require him to put down his sculpting knives. Many of the viewers of his art have similarly strong reactions to his creations. When several Catholic nuns saw his sculpture of Jesus, they knelt and began to pray.

He has completed over 200 works of art in bronze, wood, and granite. To help improve communities in the Washington Metropolitan region, Jeffries formed a non-profit Spirits of Love, Inc. to raise funds to train inner city youth. He also started a second business abbreviated M.A.C.E.O (Memorials, Architects, Civil Engineers, Operations. Corp.) to improve the communities’ economic conditions. He continues to inspire and build communities with his art and social programs from his home in Virginia.

The Reasonable Voice is so proud to present MACEO JEFFRIES, a seasoned artist who's work continues to inspire his audience, as the tragedies and comedies that have filled his life, continue to imbue his art.

He is indeed, a HUMAN BEING!

Years before packing a B.A. in Criminal Justice, future artist ERIK VINING was fascinated with the performing strongmen of old, who performed amazing feats of strength, including the bending of a long bar into an artistic creation.

However, being a Navy Diver involved in the training of dolphins in the US Marine Mammal Program would temporarily take him in a different direction, which ultimately led to the US Capital as an officer in the Capital Police.

Thus, in Washington, DC and now a husband and father of two sons, ERIK VINING re-discovered his artistic bent, quite literally. For without the assistance of a torch, vise or any tools, he creates original artistic sculpture.

Using only his body and his bare hands, he bends steel bars into unique 'Hard Art,'believing that, "taking great time and care with every inch of each bar is essential, for the essence of each piece is in every bend of the bar." "I do not impose my will on the steel, but rather allow it to direct my body and hands to its new and final evolution."

While it would be much easier to heat and bend a steel bar around a tree, the process used by ERIK VINING to create his 'Hard Art,' is as important as the final creation itself.

"My process puts life into the steel," as The Reasonable Voice strives to put steel back into America's insistence on the Rule of Law, Honesty & Truth in our Government and a Rebirth of Freedom.

So we proudly welcome Artist Erik Vining to the The Reasonable Voice Family of Patriots!