Arguably the largest disaster to occur in Japan since World War II, the Tohoku Earthquake and nuclear meltdown on March 11, 2011 drastically altered Japan and Nara's art. At a magnitude of 9.0 the Tohoku Earthquake is the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan. It triggered a tsunami, which caused level seven nuclear meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Resulting in approximately 14,000-25,000 deaths and missing persons, and leaving thousands more survivors displaced, this disaster was incredibly traumatic for the Japanese public (Eisler).

Paintings like Black Eyed (2014), Midnight Silence (2014), and Miss Spring (2014) continue the somber and subdued theme of Nara's post-earthquake paintings. In place of Nara’s previously monochromatic use of color, these paintings use soft multi-colored gradient effects in both the eyes and the clothes. The former simplicity of Nara’s images has been made more complex by the complicated aftermath of the earthquake.

These post-earthquake paintings express the damage and hurt that the earthquake caused, both physically and psychologically. However, they also point toward the process of healing. From these images, it seems that Nara’s little girl is beginning to grow up.