Louise Kikuchi was born and raised in Hawaii and has lived in Tokyo, Paris and Seattle, as well as other cities in the United States. The artist taught at Western Washington University as an Associate French professor from 1979 up to 1996. It was during the 90's  that she became acquainted with Dana and Toni Ann Rust, the owners of the Edison Eye Gallery.  Kikuchi was painting plein air on the banks of the Edison slough when Dana approached her. They became friends and she often showed her work at the Eye alongside Clayton James, Joel Brock and Joseph Goldberg.
 

Kikuchi had studied art since the 1960's in Hawaii and at the Sorbonne in Paris. She also studied sumi-e with Hashimoto Torin, Tokyo in tne early 1980's. This was the medium that became her passion. Sumi is a carbon based ink used as a medium in calligraphy and paintings of China, Japan and Korea. Unlike western water colors, sumi ink bonds with the paper and once painted becomes permanent.