Airi Katsuta

Airi Katsuta is a senior in the Arizona State University School of Art. She volunteered in Ishinomaki, Japan, for two weeks last summer as part of the earthquake and tsunami relief effort following the March 11, 2011, disaster. A photography student, Katsuta returned to the states with photographs and a thousand cranes origami display to heighten awareness and to share her personal experience helping rebuild Ishinomaki, a city located in Miyagi prefecture, one of the areas most affected by the the disaster.

Katsuta, who graduates in May, displayed her crane installation at the Feb. 26 Arizona Matsuri Festival and at the March 11 Anniversary Remembrance Event of the Tsunami at the Arizona Historic Society.

Katsuta is selling her cyanotyped cranes to raise enough money to return to Japan and continue to volunteer this August. She has started a fundraising project on Kickstarter.com to sell her cranes. Go to her Kickstarter website to contribute or visit her website.