INCREDIBLY BUSY SUMMER, BUT VERY PRODUCTIVE...

This summer I completed 3 paintings. Two of them were inspired by photographs I took at the 2012 Tule Lake Pilgrimage.

                                     Executive Order 9066, Series 17.  Desecrated Cemetery
                                                  Watercolor on paper.  Image 22"x30"

 

 A memorial service was held at the Tule Lake Cemetery. As the Pilgrimage participants honored the people who were incarcerated and died at Tule Lake during World War II, I felt their emotions as they viewed what is now a desecrated cemetery, bulldozed over, creating a pit at the site.

 

    Executive Order 9066, Series 18. What Lies Ahead?                  Watercolor on paper, Image 30"x22"
                    

I took a photo of an elderly man, carrying the suitcase that he had taken when forcibly removed from his home in 1942.   He brought it to the Pilgrimage and as he sat there, I envisioned a younger man, waiting to be taken to some unknown place. Many questions filled the minds of the prisoners, as they wondered nervously, "what lies ahead?"                                                    

 

Executive Order 9066. Series 19.  Manzanar Guard Tower    
Acrylic on paper, Image 22"x30
             

This painting was created for the 16th Annual Henry Fukuhara Manzanar Paintout. As I looked through the legs of the guard tower, I was intrigued by the shadow of the tall, strong, bold structure looming in front of me. Peeking through the legs, I envisioned the concentration camp-- hundreds of barracks surrounded by barbed wire, parts of it coiled and twisted.




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