She recalls her mood being as gray as the Washington skies on a cold winter’s day.

For some reason, Norimi Kusanagi couldn’t shake her feelings of depression as menopause slunk its way into her life a few years ago. It gripped her, often making her feel sick and not like herself.

But a trip to Japan three years ago to visit her sister-in-law, Emiko, changed and enlightened her mind. A simple act she learned while visiting turned out to be a profound and life-changing catalyst for her.

Nature, it turns out, can be a natural healer of depression.

Kusanagi had never particularly cared for blooming buds while growing up in her native Japan — despite the common act of young girls learning ikebana or flower arranging — and quit classes for the art early on. Even after she married and became consumed by creating a Northwest/Japanese-style home and yard that featured a Zen dry rock garden, flowers were not even in the landscape plans.

Flowers just never held her interest like they did for some people, she said.

“I wasn’t really a flower girl at all,” she admitted. “I wasn’t into flowers.”

Unlike Kusanagi, her sister-in-law enjoyed years of working on artwork with pressed flowers. After showing Kusanagi the process, she gave a flower press to her in hopes that she would pick up the skill with enthusiasm.

She did.

Once back in the states, the Bainbridge Island resident found herself wandering the streets of Winslow in the early mornings picking berries, flowers and weeds.

Kusanagi said she pressed “everything” and admits that she messed up quite a bit. But the process of flower collecting turned out to be a soothing routine that she incorporated into her daily life — even on the darkest of days in the bitterly cold winters of Washington.

The flowers somehow kept her spirit and health alive and well. The more she pressed, the lighter she felt, as though the depression, too, was seeping out along with the moisture in the flowers.

“They’re so beautiful,” she said. “They lift up your mood. I like to share that healing element.”

To ensure the beauty stays, Kusanagi photocopies each original card to have a lasting reproduction of her designs long after the flowers decay. The result often looks as though her cards are copies of hand-painted canvases where her flowers are displayed. And the cards have been very well-received, something she didn’t expect, she said. Kusanagi’s even had a New York business pick up an order of her cards to sell 3,000-some miles away.

With that kind of encouragement, she’s continued her journey of flower collecting on a daily basis.

She frequently wanders the island, stopping at various places before reaching up and plucking flowers from trees along her walking route. Kusanagi will never pick from a neighbor’s yard, though, and said she is careful with what and where she picks.

Often, she admits she apologizes to the tree from which she takes, thanking it for blessing her with a piece of nature’s beauty.

“I don’t want to take a lot,” Kusanagi said. “They sacrifice their lives.”

While she doesn’t take a lot, she has collected quite a bit over the last three years since she started her newfound art form. In a home office, she keeps dozens of plastic bags filled with dried specimens. Since she’s started, she’s created at least 400 different designs with the flowers she’s picked from all over Washington, Japan, Hawaii, California and New York.

“If I cut it, I don’t want to waste it,” she said.

After she snips a piece of nature, she makes sure to press it as soon as possible to start the process of drying before it dies. Once three days or more have passed, Kusanagi removes the paper-thin flowers from the press before delicately arranging the flowers on a 5-by-7 blank card.

As a finishing touch, she places a handmade stamp of the Japanese character “gassho,” which means “putting hands together.” Kusanagi said it also translates to the Japanese version of namaste, which can be interpreted as love, peace, gratitude or compassion.

“I don’t consider myself an artist. I consider myself a facilitator,” she said of creating her cards. “My way of doing ‘art’ is very quick and intuitive.”

Even if she doesn’t consider herself an artist, others in the community do.

Linda Meier, art coordinator for the Bainbridge Island Library, works with local artists in displaying their work at the library. For the last several years, she’s brought in artists who aren’t often considered for the gallery mainstream to show their work for a month at a time.

She’s hosted painters and photographers in the past, but she’s never had a pressed flower artist.

“It’s so simple,” Meier said of Kusanagi’s cards. “It’s just simply beautiful and has this very clear, defined, natural form that clearly has an Asian influence but also very Northwest. Many of her images are Northwest flowers.”

Meier picked up one of Kusanagi’s card at Bainbridge Arts & Crafts and asked her about it the next time she saw her in a yoga class they take together. She encouraged her to think about setting up an exhibit a year later.

The opening night of Kusanagi’s display earlier this month attracted a packed house, Meier said. She sold 350 cards in two hours, along with some originals on display. Her exhibit is dedicated to her parents who both passed away in 2013.

“This is her first show ever, so she was extremely nervous that nobody would show up,” Meier said. “Sometimes we just don’t get a very large crowd. Norimi’s opening was packed from the very beginning.”