Cosmic artist Sachiko Adachi knew intuitively that her art was powerful, so she went to great lengths to dispel any misunderstanding that she was playing with fire.
"I put inspiration into action, knowing that if things don't work out, that's how it goes," she said. "It won't kill me. And if it does kill me, even that doesn't really matter. When I die it means that my role on Earth is finished. Death is the message that I have done the best I can and I've done enough."
Less than six months after Sachiko made this matter-of-fact statement to an Osaka audience, her role on Earth came to an end. She had spent June 20, 1993, hanging an exhibition called "Infinite Cosmic Consciousness" in an art gallery in Machida, in western Tokyo. She told her friends she had a headache and wanted to go to bed early. The next morning, the day the gallery was to open, Sachiko was found dead from an aneurysm.