With more than 60,000 square feet of art, the sprawling, disorderly phenomenon that is Artisan Works could easily be compared to a labyrinth. And like a labyrinth, it keeps changing all the time, a warehouse-contained growing and shifting chaos, which creator and owner Louis Perticone calls "antiquarian." He delights that viewers can unexpectedly stumble upon a Warhol or a Chagall amid local artists' works. But beyond the massive permanent collection, the Works tops itself with important shows, including the current spiritual and aesthetic exploration of water by Tokyo native Midori Toda.

When I asked the woman at the front desk where I could find Toda's show, she instructed me to "pass Treebeard, turn right, and go over the red bridge" and into a narrow hallway where the show is located. This is Toda's first solo show in the United States, and it includes the large-scale, multi-panel, rich "natural pigment" (using ground pigments such as oyster and malachite) paintings of the surfaces of water, as well India ink figurative work and pastel nature scenes.

A looping film in a small side room helps viewers get to know the artist better, and is narrated by several people, including an 86-year-old woman who took Toda's class at a Japanese senior center. We learn that the artist is a Christian convert (and was baptized in the water), having found god after falling very ill and into a deep depression. This body of work is based on bible verses from the gospel of John, in which Jesus is compared to an eternal spring of healing waters. Toda took her inspiration from the verses, but also from nature, when she watched pristine and clear water burst forth from a Mt. Fuji spring.

Toda's waters flow over five wall-sized works, each made of three to five tall panels of intensely rich color and reflections of light bouncing off of undulating surfaces. Unseen disturbances bounce the water around while it defiantly remains whole, circles rippling out with wider and wider range. The art gives us plenty of moral themes to meditate upon, even without the interference of religion. Deep cobalt blues and ceruleans are layered over paler blues and plenty of white light. Touches of green mysteriously hint at life from the depths of the water shining through.

The highly textured work is nearly abstract, and in the film Toda explains that she practices restraint in her work, stopping "at 70 or 80 percent. The rest is up to the viewers. They fill in the gaps." She "intentionally leave[s] room for the viewers to complete them in their mind." My imagination immediately goes to those other destructive waters associated with the Judeo-Christian god - namely, the Flood. But I do not share her view that the Christian idea of god is a particularly benevolent, all-loving god.

Also included in the show are several figurative pieces: nine full figured, beautiful, dignified India ink washes of ghostly nude females, and one clothed man (interesting that he's the only covered body...but also the least interesting of the pieces). There are a few traditional Japanese decorative paintings of flowers floating atop shimmering foil backgrounds, and a number of large-scale, single-paneled pastel scenes of misty mountains and forests. Three of these are portraits of Mt. Fuji - the peak itself is god-like and points to a long tradition of the search for and worship of the numinous in nature. The mountain could be seen as Toda's symbol of Christ, as its spring water inspired the "Living Waters" body of work.

Crisp autumnal scenes bursting with nature's colorful last breath are present in such works as "Shining Valley." Wistful sighs of endings and new beginnings and change are found in "Early Winter," "Frozen Waterfall," and "Sudden Rain"; the latter in particular captures the temperature and texture of the air in only a slightly tighter style than that of the Impressionists.

Toda's sketchy, layered brushstrokes create something of a veil, like indistinct reality. This calls to mind much religious prose and poetry (specifically Hindu verse, and Rumi's works), where the physical, phenomenal world is spoken of as illusory.

Her art is absolutely stunning. While I'm not at home with the Christian sentiment, I realize that almost nothing has evoked that celebratory reaction in humans like the spiritual, and I'm grateful for the centuries of amazing cultural elements inspired by worship. The film informs us that Toda struggled with capturing the feeling of "God's grandiosity," and so she "had to paint large pieces to convey" this.

To me, Toda's work also speaks of the Zen tradition's meditations on simplicity and beauty and serenity in nature, as well as the miraculous ebb and flow of life and energy made visible in the world. Similarly, there is a universal relationship with water as a cleansing and healing element. Anyone can view the art and feel the power behind it without feeling alienated by a specific dogma. In truth, an overwhelming amount of immortalized art is faith based - its power comes from the depth of the human endeavor to praise the great unfathomable mystery that has awed each of us since consciousness birthed existential crises.

Living Waters

By Midori Toda

Through September 6

Artisan Works, 565 Blossom Rd, Suite L | 288-7170

Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun noon-5 p.m. | $8-$12