Sunday, July 3, 2011

Welcome to Mary Higuchi Arts



Hatsuko Mary Higuchi was born in Los Angeles in 1939.  On February 19, 1942,  President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the mass removal and incarceration of  “all persons of Japanese ancestry” on the West Coast. Mary’s family was imprisoned in the U.S. War Relocation Authority’s Colorado River concentration camp at Poston, Arizona, 1942-1945.  Her father died in 1951, after purchasing a 10-acre farm, leaving her mother to raise four small children and work the land.  

Mary earned a teaching credential from UCLA and a MA from Pepperdine University. She taught as an elementary school master teacher from 1962 until retirement in 2003.  

Always interested in the arts, she took evening classes at UCLA and California State University Long Beach in  weaving, craft design, silver-smithing, black-smithing, and interior design.  A turning point in her life occurred in 1989 when she met Henry Fukuhara.  It was through Henry’s mentoring and encouragement that Mary’s painting career was launched.   In 1998,  Mary was among the founding group of plein air artists who joined Henry’s annual Manzanar Paint Outs.   

Mary Higuchi paints a variety of themes such as landscapes, figures, and abstracts.  She uses watercolor, acrylic,  mixed media, collage, and calligraphy.  Her EO 9066 paintings depict faces with anonymous features or none at all, symbolizing the mass anonymity to which over 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were reduced–denied due process and judged guilty solely by reason of their race.  Mary Higuchi’s haunting portraits are a warning that what happened to Japanese Americans is a precedent for similar actions against other groups, unless we remember the lessons of the past.   

Recent Awards and Juried Exhibitions:
2004.  Juror’s Award. Watercolor West XXXVI. Brea, CA.
2005.  First Place in Abstract and Best of Show.  Torrance Artist Guild Fall Show.  Torrance, CA. 
2006.  Painter’s Haven Award. 26th International Exhibition. San Diego Watercolor Society.  CA.
2006.  First Place in Abstracts; Third Place in Genre.  Mid Valley           Art League. Pasadena, CA. 
2007.  First Place in Portraits and Figures; First Place in Genre.  Mid Valley Art League. Pasadena.
2007.  Excellence in Arts Award for Visual Arts.  City of Torrance.
2008.  Best of Show.  South Bay Watercolor Society.  Torrance Art Museum.
2008.  Daler Rowney Award.  Watercolor West 40th Juried Exhibition.  Brea.
2008.  Ripsime Marashian Donor Award.  37th National Juried Exhibit, Brand Library. Glendale, CA. 
2008.  First Place in Portraits; and First Place in Abstracts.  Torrance Artists Guild.  
2008.  Best of Show;  First Place in Genre. Mid Valley Art League. Pomona, California.
2008.  David Gale Memorial Award for EO 9066-Series 2.  Western Federation of Watercolor Societies.  Tubac, AZ.
2009.  President’s Award; Honorable Mention in Portraits.  Mid Valley Art League. Pasadena.
2009.  Best of Show.  South Bay Watercolor Society.  Torrance Art Museum.
2009.  Best in Show.  Torrance Artists Guild.  Torrance Art Museum.
2009.  Best of Show and Signature Member.  12th Annual ISAP International Open Exhibition.  International Society of Acrylic Painters.  Santa Cruz, CA.
2009.  2nd Annual ISAP International Open Online Exhibition.  International Society of Acrylic Painters. 
2010.  Rockies West National 17th Annual Watercolor Exhibition.  Western Colorado Watercolor Society. Grand Junction, CO.
2010.  National Watercolor Society All Member Show.  NWS Gallery, San Pedro, CA.
2010.  Linda Doll Seminar Group Cash Award.  30th Annual International Exhibition. San Diego Watercolor Society. 
2010.  First Place in Portraits; and Membership Award.  Torrance Artists Guild.
2010.  3rd Annual ISAP International Open Online Exhibition.  International Society of Acrylic Painters. 
2010.  Los Angeles Juried Exhibition.  Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park, CA.
2011.  Rockies West National 18th Annual Exhibition.  Western Colorado Watercolor Society.  Grand Junction, CO.
2011.  Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, Albuquerque, NM.
2011.  National Watercolor Society All Member Show.  NWS Gallery, San Pedro, CA.
2011.   California State University Dominguez Hills, 50th Anniversary commissioned painting, E Pluribus Unum-Series 2.
2012.  Rockies West National. 19th Annual Exhibition. Awarded Signature Membership Status.
2012.  First Place in Honor Court Division. Mid Valley Arts League. Arcadia, CA.
2012. Best of Show and First Place. 15th Annual ISAP International Open Exhibition. Paso Robles, CA.
2013.  Northwest Waterolor Society (NWWS).  73rd Annual Open Exhibition. FineArtsStudioOnline (FASO) Award. Mercer Island, WA.
2013:  California State Senate. 10th Biennial Contemporary California Art Collection Exhibition.  State Capitol, Sacramento, CA. EO 9066,Series 9.
2013.  APC Fine Arts & Gallery.  Connected by Art:  The Return Together,  An exhibition of paintings by Henry Fukuhara, Mary Higuchi, Ron Libbrecht, & Al Setton. Torrance, CA
          
Publications and Blogs featuring EO 9066 and E Pluribus Unum Series: 
2008.  EO 9066-Series 2, in American Artist magazine (May 2008).
2010.  EO 9066-Series 4, in Chris Unwin, Artistic Touch 4 (Creative Arts Press, 2010).
2010.  EO 9066-Series 2 and 3, in Letter Arts Review: The Annual Juried Issue (Vol. 24, No.2, 2010).
2010.  Mary Higuchi’s brief biography and three of her EO 9066 paintings are on Donna Watson’s Blogspot link
2010.  EO 9066-Series 4, cover illustration on Donald Teruo Hata and Nadine Ishitani Hata, Japanese Americans and World War II:  Mass Removal, Imprisonment, and Redress, Fourth Edition. (Harlan Davidson, Inc., 2010).
2011.  E Pluribus Unum, Series 1, cover illustration on official program for the first Asian Pacific Islander Graduation Celebration at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
2011.  Unveiling of commissioned 50th Anniversary commemorative painting, "E Pluribus Unum" for CSU Dominguez Hills
2011.  EO 9066-Series 6, cover illustration on official program of the 2011 Pilgrimage to Manzanar National Historic Site.  Independence, CA.
2012.  EO 9066 - Series 8, in Chris Unwin, Artistic Touch 5 (Northlight).
2013.  Annual Henry Fukuhara Manzanar  Workshop, an interview of Dani Dodge, Mary Higuchi,and Al Setton, on podcast: http://collidingworldstvandart.com/podcasts.html
2013.  EO 9066-Series 7, Recess Time, cover illustration, Tule Lake Unit of World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, General Management, Newsletter #1, Public Scoping, Summer 2013, http://www.nps.gov/tule/parkmgmt/upload/TuleScoping-Newsletter1 PEPC 5-31-13.pdf
2013.  EO 9066.  Six paintings in Russ Tremayne Surviving Minidoka , ( Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press. Boise, 2013.
.


For additional information, contact Hatsuko Mary Higuchi at maryhiguchiarts@yahoo.com.

 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)