As an American woman artist of Japanese descent, I am sensitive to the waves of political rhetoric that vibrate occasionally calling for the incarceration of certain types of people based on race, religion or some other labeling. My mother, an American citizen born in California, was forcibly moved as an eleven-year-old with her family to an American concentration camp in Colorado during World War II because fear of “the other” destroyed “reason.” Can such a family history cause anything but reluctance to condone blanket policies against any group? Can there be equity, justice, kindness at least? I take my mission as a creative human being and my task as an artist to present thought provoking work very seriously. My art, whether figurative or abstract, seeks to highlight moments for decision, meetings in the road and incidents that drive us to search for where we keep our soul.
“Guard Tower” is from my illustrated book about the Japanese American Internment called The Pink Dress.