Kanoko Takaya is a born and raised artist from Kyoto, Japan. She has first introduced to Indonesia’ s vast variety of cultures through her mother, who would often visit Bali, Indonesia, alongside Kanoko. Through these travels, her love of Indonesian culture blossomed. After graduating from Kyoto Seika, majoring in Visual Design, Kanoko was longing to return to Indonesia, eventually returning in 2014. She continued her studies at Indonesia University of the Arts (ISI), Surakarta (Solo), Central Java. During her two years residing in Solo,Kanoko touched on traditional Indonesian culture in depth – particularly fascinated by the “Bobung” mask in Yogyakarta (Central Java) and the mask of Malang (East Java). The Indonesian masks fascinate her through the many expressions which she feels represents Indonesians so well – very open and expressive; differing from Japanese masks which show little expression but very detailed. The Indonesian masks at the museum fascinated her so much, that she had to return another day and sketched them all day long. In her third year in Indonesia, Kanoko moved to Bali and continued working on products for Pithecanthropus under her own brand, Kanokon. Kanoko continues to create artwork through a variety of representation methods such as acrylic plates, illustrations on canvas, paper, and fabric, antique decoration, and other three-dimensional formats. Often inspired by nature e.g. leaves, flowers, the sun, and the moon, her designs are a combination of Indonesian culture and what she feels or sees as a person.