Hewett Painting Selected as Gift from Akie Abe to Melania Trump

December 8, 2017

It is with great humility that I have the pleasure to announce to you all that on the recent state visit by the President of the United States, Mrs. Akie Abe, wife to the Prime Minister of Japan selected my painting entitled; ‘Majime’ as a gift to Mrs. Melania Trump, the First Lady of The United States.

I am honoured to have been selected and feel especially joyful that as a former US Marine and longtime Japan resident and student of Japanese history and art, my art was able to play some small part in bringing Japan and the United States closer together. Mrs. Abe encountered my art when she visited the Tekko Building and the Oakwood Premier Tokyo Hotel where my paintings decorate the lobby spaces.

Additionally, I had the wonderful honour in 2014 of being asked by the Erick Trump Foundation to donate a large painting to the St. Judes Research Hospital for Children’s Charity Auction which benefits this wonderful cause. I hope that in even in this small way, art can bring us all closer together and help us realise that our commonalities far outweigh our differences.