“Myself as Sea Monster” 1984
Oil & gilding on three-panel byobu, 72” x 72”. Collection of Edward Ifshin
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“Twins” 1982
Mixed media on paper, 24” x 24”.
Read More“Mausoleum” 1988
Charcoal and newspaper collage on paper, 100″ x 103″. Collection of the artist.
Read More“Untitled” 1979
The 1st work I did using a computer was in grad school around 1967 at Notre Dame. You couldn’t even call it art it was more about a way of thinking drawing was related to logic and syllogisms. It fit well with minimalism. I had a minor in philosophy as an undergrad and was […]
Read More“Wigwam & Tree” 1988
Graphite on paper, 63” x 51”. Collection of the artist.
Read More“Martyr & Cage” (dyptich) 2019
I 1st used the chicken cage image as a metaphor for Minidoka and other internment (concentration) camps. There was this bullshit excuse that my relatives were interned to “protect” them from the anger of other Americans. It’s like saying we put chickens in cages to protect them from the fox. I think of the figure […]
Read More“BARRIER AGAINST THE WIND” (Verso) 2019
This image (the verso side of Barrier Against the Wind) is scratched into wet paint to present Ted Nakashima’s article for The New Republic in 1942. At the time Ted and Mako (his wife) were in temporary internment at Camp Harmony, awaiting transfer to Minidoka Internment Camp in Idaho. Perhaps because of this writing Ted […]
Read More“Barrier Against The Wind” (frontice) 2019
This painting is done in a modified technique I developed to mimic the traditional Japanese byobu (folding screen). While the hinging and panels are more or less traditional it is painted with oil and gilded leaf on panels. The left panel displays a figure of a martyr in a cart I drew from a German […]
Read More“Tule Lake / Manzanar Jail” 2019
“Vortex 2” 1999
Charcoal, conte crayon, and collage. 72″ x 60″. Collection of Patrice and Herb Miller. The choice to use a vortex was inspired by DuChamp’s “Large Glass” and the idea within the zietgeist of the “The Event Horizon”, and how that subject is brought home to Planet Earth today in the familiar form of global warming. […]
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Tom Nakashima 