“Mausoleum” 1988

April 20, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Charcoal and newspaper collage on paper, 100″ x 103″. Collection of the artist.

“Martyr & Cage” (dyptich) 2019

October 5, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

“BARRIER AGAINST THE WIND” (Verso) 2019

October 5, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

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 […]

“Barrier Against The Wind” (frontice) 2019

October 5, 2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

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 […]

“Tule Lake / Manzanar Jail” 2019

October 5, 2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

“Vortex 2” 1999

March 26, 2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

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. […]

“Vortex” 1998

March 26, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Oil and collage on canvas. 84″ x 96″. Collection of Giorgio Furioso I was listening to an interview with John Polkinghorn. He was speaking about the places where creative events are most likely to appear. To paraphrase he said that novelty occurs in situations where chaos and order are in close proximity. He gave a […]

“Self-Portrait As Sea Monster Contemplating The Moon” 1985

March 22, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Oil and gilding on byōbu (folding screen). 72″ x 144″ Collection of Gail and John Enns. This was the first of my more or less authentic Japanese folding screens Byobu). In 1980 there were no books or videos that I could find on this process. My dear friend Marty Amt (Special Assistant to The Director […]

“Pilgrimage” 1988

March 22, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Oil on 2-panel byōbu (folding screen). 38″ x 51″. Collection of the late Kirby Rodriguez. This byōbu was done in Yamanashi Prefecture Japan during my visit in 1988. Fuji was very close by. My benefactor purchased an old decaying screen from a junk shop and I restored it with new papers and hinges. It is […]

“Silver Cage with Grave” 1991