My 'passion project' is coming to fruition! I'll have a solo show in June and July in the small Norton Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara of my photographs of the concentration camp where my father's family was held during WW II.

The photos are large-scale, mostly 36" wide and printed on vellum, giving them a translucent look. The show "Memories of Barbed Wire: Resilience of the Japanese American Community" will also include two sculptural pieces and a video installation. The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara is at 653 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA on the second floor of the El Paseo shopping mall downtown. "Arte del Pueblo" will be on display at the same time in the main gallery.

My father's family was given 3 days to evacuate Seattle. They had to dispose of everything they could not carry in a couple of suitcases, so they lost two mom-and-pop grocery stores. Geri Takahashi was an American citizen (like the majority of the 120,000+ Japanese Americans incarcerated) and had never even been to Japan. Her incarceration at the age of 21 years of age left emotional scars that never healed. Even though the government intelligence report at the time said the Japanese Americans were loyal and not a threat, racism and false propaganda caused the West Coast states to round up and incarcerate anyone with even 1/16th Japanese heritage, including babies who had been taken in by non-Japanese American families.

I've wanted to tell this story for years and am grateful to MCASB for bringing it to the public. There will be an opening reception the first weekend in June. I'll post the info for it--it will be free and open to the public.

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