Mine' Okubo: Japanese-American Artist Documented the Internment Camps

"In the camps, first at Tanforan and then at Topaz in Utah, I had the opportunity to study the human race from the cradle to the grave, and to see what happens to people when reduced to one status and one condition. Cameras and photographs were not permitted in the camps, so I recorded everything in sketches, drawings and paintings." Miné Okubo, preface to the 1983 edition of Citizen 13660

How many of us know anything about the artist Mine' Okubo, 1912-2001?  

At a time when Asian-American hate has risen up from the toxic cauldren of White Supremacy, we are moved to recall the horrible discrimination and oppression that Asian Americans endured in the past. It's not a pretty story, and its present incarnation is as ugly.

Okubo was a respected artist in her day, best known for her book Citizen 13660, a collection of 209 drawings and accompanying text chronicling her experiences in Japanese Internment Camps during World War II. It's a sad story. 

Okubu's parents came to the USA from Japan in 1904 to seek a better life, her father a scholar and her mother a calligrapher. They settled in Riverside, California, where Mine' was born, went to school, and studied art.  After getting her MA in Art at UC-Berkeley, she  earned a scholarship to study art in Europe. The coming war cut her stay short.

When she returned home, she worked for a while as a muralist on Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Arts projects. I found that fascinating. I am always, always impressed with the fact that an FDR New Deal program actually hired artists and humanists in every field, of every race, ethnicity, and background, across the country, to document and beautify America. Maybe Biden will consider reviving it. 

December 7, 1941, changed the course of Miné Okubo’s life and the lives of the entire Japanese and Japanese-American communities living in the United States.  Pressed by the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which banned people of Japanese descent from living on the West Coast. Okubo and her family, US citizens all, were forced to vacate their home and were separated for relocation. 

Okubo and her brother were interned to Tanforan Assembly Center and the Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942 to 1944. There Okubo made over 2,000 drawings and sketches of daily life in the camps, many of which were included in her book. She always had her sketch book with her, including when she was teaching art to the children of the camps. After her release Okubo relocated to New York to continue her career as an artist, earning numerous awards and recognitions.

In 1946 Citizen 13360 came out. It was the first published account of the dreadful and shameful experience of the Japanese Internment Camps. The title of the book refers, of course, to the number the US government assigned her in the camps. Just a number. The dehumanizing anquish of American citizens who lost everything they had and were forced to  struggle to survive. 

Okubo, Child, c.1990s.

In 1981, Okubu testifed about the camps before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 to recognize the illegal removal of people of Japanese ancestry from their homes and awarded final compensation in the amount of $20,000. Okubu used the money to pay off debts, but it could never erase the experience from her mind and heart. She continued painting until her death in 2001.  

Interesting styles and composition. This piece is at MOMA.

Some sources:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mine-okubo, for a good biography.

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a35913981/its-time-to-reckon-with-the-history-of-asian-women-in-america/, a fascinating, and painful, history of Asian women in America.

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation, history of  the Japanese-American Internment Camps, considered one of the most heinous violations of American Civil Rights in the 20th century. 

For Women's History Month 2021: Women Artists Share their VIsions

Inessa Morozova, born in Kherson, Ukraine, contemporary Plein Air artist.
Such beautiful roses. You can almost smell them, a lovely floating scent. It makes me think of my mom. 

"During the month of March, we celebrate women and the contributions and achievements they have made throughout history, culture, and society. History books are filled with the accomplishments of women but mostly relegated to footnotes and sidebars.....Women's History Month reminds us that women have, since the beginning of time, been  invaluable assets with intellectual gifts, creative talents, and indomitable spirit. They have excelled in business, government, volunteer activities, religious life, education, health, the military, sports, and so much more. And undeniably the arts."  B.Doughterty, "Celebrating Female Artists Then and Now," ArtMine, 2020

Here are some fascinating artists, from the early 20th century to today, that Christa Zaat's "Female Artists in History" online series has discovered and promoted, bringing them out of the shadows and into the light of day. Women artists have existed from time immemorial, across place and time, all over the world. Some of these artists were known and admired in their day, but most all of them have been hidden from history, their talent invisible, underexposed, underappreciated. This is slowly changing, thanks to enlightened art dealers, scholars, curators, and various projects focused on their hidden but exceptional work. More of their art is gracing the walls of more museums, and more of their works are being sold at galleries and at art auctions. That is always a good sign that the artists are being honored and valued. 

For Spring, Juliette Wytsman, Belgium  

So many women Impressionists plein air painters to add to Museum walls! Here is Juliette Wytsman, 1860-1925, Belgium artist, a lovely rendition of  blossoming Cherry trees and a colorful garden.  During World War I, she and her husband, also a painter, fled to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Wytsman  mostly painted landscapes, ethereal, as lovely and skilled as any painting by Monet, Manet,  Renoir, Pissaro or Degas. 

Anne Redpath, 1895-1965, Scottish. Her father was a tweed designer and her art reflected it. "I add a touch of red or yellow in a harmony of grey, what my father did with tweed." She was born in Galashilo and studied at the Edinburgh School of Art. She helped organize the Society of Women Artists and was president from 1944-1947. I've learned that this is something women artists did in many other places, here in the US as well. It reveals a consciousness of the need to encourage, support and promote the work of women artists in a patriarchal universe. Redpath moved toward Abstract Expressionism toward the end of her life, as did many other women artists of her generation. I find it an interesting evolution of their work. I love Redpath's art.

Anna Blackburne, c. 1726-1793, a British naturalist and painter. These paintings are part of a series of  21 "bird and insect studies amongst fruits and flowers." Her collection was inherited by her nephew who dispersed them. It's not known if all her art was "dispersed" or to whom. Very little is known about early women artists in the period from 1400-1800. In Anna Blackburne's case, some auction houses have parts of her series and offer them for sale. See Female Artists in History 

Alma Woodsey Thomas, 1891-1975, African-American, born in Georgia, grew up and went to school in Washington, DC, a graduate of Howard, taught in a DC Junior high school for over 20 years, mentored by Lois Mallou Jones, moved toward Abstractionist art in her 70s. Highly regarded, in collections at Howard, Museum of Women in the Arts, the Smithsonian. Above left, Eclipse; right, Iris, tulips, & Jonquils. Such diferent perspectives and styles from Anna Blackburne's detailed botanical studies to Thomas's amazing abstract expressionist nature paintings.   

Lill Tschudi, 1911-2004, Swiss, associated with The Grosvenor School of Modern Art, a private British art school and the name of a brief British-Australian art movement. It was founded in 1925 by the Scottish wood engraver Iain Macnab in his house at 33 Warwick Square in Pimlico, London. The school did much to revive interest in printmaking in general, and the linocut in particular, in the years between the Wars. Artists associated with it have come to be known as the "Grosvenor School," and their work commands high prices. Wikipedia

"Parts of a World," 1987

Jane Freilicher, 1924-2014, American. Though "Parts of a World" is similar in subject to many of Freilicher's other work in that it consists of a still life in the foreground and a cityscape in the background, its collection of objects, muted colors, and abstracted painterly style differentiate it. The buildings in the background are in hushed shades of salmon, ochre, and taupe, and a hazy white mist obscures their lower parts and seems to meld into the still life scene in the foreground. On the table rests a blue and white porcelain bowl, a decorative white dish, a plate with four silver sardines, a small earthen vase with two slender white orchids, and a slender, small statue of the Venus de Milo. The objects anchor a luminous gossamer textile to the circular marble table, but the perspective is just slightly off, slightly tilted; it is as if the veil is slowly slipping off the table into the viewer's space and the objects will eventually tumble. Sara Pace, Celebrating Women Artists in History 

Burney Falls, 1980

Bernice Bing , or “Bingo,” 1936–1998, Chinese-American, was a well-respected figure in the San Francisco arts community during the 1950s and ’60s, but her Abstract Expressionist paintings have largely been left out of the movement’s subsequent history. It is, of course, unsurprising that the works of a Chinese-American and lesbian artist would fall through the cracks of art history. The red ideogram meaning “humanity” in Chinese and the heart symbolism show Bing’s attempt to find a place in American society through abstract, spiritual imagery. “Both symbols—humanity and heart—reflect Bing,” FloWong, an artist and close friend of Bing’s, said. Wikipedia

Notes: For all these artists, google their names and click on "images."  Wikipedia is good for biographical information. You'll find other sites listed too.  It's a lovely journey through the most beautiful art and hidden talent. It makes me realize how hard these women artists of the past had to struggle to be visible, and how important it is to make their art known. Now whenever I'm at TMA, I think of them. It would be wonderful if it added more women's art, in all genres and mediums, overtime, to its permanent collection. Not only having an exhibition here and there, though its important, but also buying women's art, like the artists and pieces shown here. The Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art have both  sold some of the art in their permanent collections in order to buy women's art. It shows a real commitment to diversity and equity. 

*  https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/g31226385/saatchi-art-100-voices-100-artists-women-history-month/

*  https://artherstory.net/

*  https://www.art-mine.com/collectorscorner/womens-history-month-celebrating-female-artists-then-and-now/

Elene Akhvlediani, Georgian Artist

Elene Akhvlediani, her beloved Tbilisi (c. 1970)

Daily life, cultural diversity

I discovered the beauty of the country of Georgia through the paintings of Elene Akhvlediani (1898-1975). She is one of the many hidden artists that Christa Zaat's online "Female Artists in History" series discovered and has promoted. I knew a little bit about Georgia through Peace Corps Volunteers who had served there and loved it. Elene Akhvlediani captures the spirit of this interesting country through her colorful and lyrical art. Georgia the country is on my mind, maybe as a travel destination in the not too-distant future. 

The country's name, by the way, comes from the Russian word Gruzia, which is derived from the Persian and Turkish versions of the name George, Gorj and Gurju. The American Georgia on the other hand was named after King George II of England, who granted the state its charter in 1732. .

In their native tongue, Georgians call themselvers Kartveli and their country Sakartvelo. The Arabs, Ottomans, and Persians--who ruled over the country at various times until the Russians took control in 1801--chose to name Sakartvelo after its patron saint George, whose image dotted the art and architecture of the region.

What a dreamland.

Elene Akhvlediani, a fabulous and prolific artist, was born in Tbilisi, the capital and largest Georgian city. As a young woman she studied in Italy and Paris, drawing the favorable attention of many of the 20th-century artists of her time. She remains a well-known and celebrated artist in her country for her depictions of Georgian towns, her illustrations of the works of writers Llia Chavchavadze and Vasha-Pshavela, and for the play sets and costumes she designed for the Marjanishvili Theater in Tbilisi. The Elene Akhvlediani House Museum is full of her art, paintings, indigenous crafts she collected from different regions of Georgia, and various objects and items of historical interest. It is now a popular tourist destination. It beckons. 

Georgia is a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Soviet Union, like Ukraine. It achieved independence in 1991 when the Soviet Union broke apart. Georgia has a long cultural heritage, unified roots in the Middle Ages, geopolitical divisions and trauma, a complicated history, like all the former SSRs. 

It is located on the Black Sea at the crossroads between Eastern Europe and western Asia, Russia and the Middle East, part of the Caucasus region. It's been fought over for generations, coveted for its strategic position and its remarkable natural beauty, fertile valleys, and near Mediterranean climate. (see sources below)

Wine country

I also learned that It is one of the oldest wine-producing countries in the world. Georgians say they invented wine, a tradition going back to 6000 BC! It's not surprising that local traditions involving wine are entwined in Georgia's culture. This certainly motivates my interest in travelling there, to see the vineyards, learn the traditions, and sample the wines. It's a UNESCO Cultural Heritage site as well. Tourism is now one of its largest economic generators, helping to lesson poverty and increase its standard of living. I'm all for that.          

The built environment. Snuggled into the mountains. 

Today, Georgia is a Parliamentary Republic, still evolving toward greater self-determination. Many commentators think that Georgia has developed its self-governance further than other SSRs, largly due to its long-time cultural freedoms and some forward-thinking leadership. The transition hasn't been easy.  

Sadly, as the country looked west to integration with the European Union, Putin's Russia took to cyber war and armed conflict to divert the attention of the Republic of Georgia, now its official name, and to undermine its progress. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, a precursor of its vicious Hybrid War and invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Post-Soviet Georgia suffered economic crises as well as secessionist wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, ramped up by Russian disinformation and propaganda wars. Russia increased its meddling in the former soviet republics, which continues to this day. Putin is the expert in Hybrid War, the 21st century version of war. 

The artist and a cityscape (early 1970s).

It was during this time that Peace Corps Volunteers in Georgia were evacuated, a traumatic experience for all of them. Some of them then served in Ukraine; I'll always remember their stories. They rhapsodized about the friendliness and hospitality of the people, the beauty of the mountains and valleys, the great interest in learning English, the vibrant cities and architecture, the music, the food. They loved the various cultural influences from the past, when the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia, as well as Germany and Russia, ruled over Georgian territories.   

Georgia highways and byways around the
Caucasion mountains. 

 

A self-portrait, in the House
Museum in Tbilisi

Akhvlediani lived through many chapters of Georgia's difficult and often tortured history, but she didn't live to see its independence movement. I have no doubt she would have been a warrior for independence. She imbibed Georgia's  unique beauty, its heart and soul, its shapes and textures, its built and natural environments, and that's what she painted. 

Her paintings have a contemporary look and feel, with the Georgian landscape always present, enlightened, alive.  Before her death she received some of the Soviet Union's highest arts and culture awards. She organized a women painters group, and mentored and encouraged the next generations of Georgian artists. She died suddenly on December 30, 1975, during a celebratory exhibition of the women's artist group. 

Winter in Tbilisi. Picasso admired her
winter scenes at a Paris exhibition
of her work. Such a lovely connection
to contemplate.

Akhvlediani didn't live to see her beloved Georgia free from the Soviet Union, but her art served as a platform for Georgia's struggle for self-definition and autonomy.  As a former Georgian PCV taught us as we raised our glasses of vodka for a toast:  "Mshvidoba," which means "for peace."  It is our wish for all the former Soviet Socialist Republics where we served. The Republic of Georgia is a beacon of hope.                            

A tourism photo (Almay) that looks like an Akhvlediani
painting. Georgia has blossomed into a new global 
tourism hotspot! 

Some sources:

1. https://georgianjournal.ge/culture/36001-important-facts-about-georgian-painter-elene-akhvlediani.html

2. https://www.peacecorps.gov/georgia/about/   

3. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17301647

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgUTglKJLdw

5. https://www.cntraveler.com/story/republic-of-georgia-welcomes-tourist-with-the-ultimate-airport-surprise

6. https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/middle-east/georgia/georgia-internal-travel

7. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/georgia/articles/facts-about-georgia/

8. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17301647

9. https://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-georgian+republic#:. Georgian wine. .

10. https://foodfuntravel.com/vineyards-in-georgia-europe-georgia-wineries-map/ Georgia wineries

11, https://www.cntraveler.com/story/a-guide-to-georgian-wine-country

Kakheti, Georgia, wine country. Getty image

12.  https://transcaucasiantrail.org/en/about/the-caucasus/#:~:text =The%20Caucasus%2C%20a%20mountainous%20isthmus,%2C%20Armenia%2C%20Turkey%20and%20Iran.  About the Caucasus region

13. What is Hybrid War? https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4676298606647372212/6409213330016232664

14.  https://georgiaabout.com/2014/06/29/the-elene-akhvlediani-house-museum/

.

Elene Akhvlediani, some images from the Baia Gallery that sells her works and from her House Museum in Tbilisi, a popular tourist destination. A georgia town, street scenes, daily life. Note different architectural styles. Such a different view of "Soviet" daily life from the darker versions we usually see. The hillsides dotted with homes and buildings make me wonder about treking in the mountains! But wandering through the vineyards, so ancient, so full of tradition.  How wonderful that would be.  

The Elene Akhvlediani House museum,Tbilisi

Private Prisons: A Horror Story

I had a weird dream a few nights ago. Unusual. I was in a beautiful town full of fantastic mansions, manicured lawns, stunning trees, bright bushes and flowers everywhere. But I wasn't in heaven. It turns out the mansions housed the owners of private prisons who were in cahoots with local politicians to insure that 60% of the population of the town were incarcerated in those prisons. They had a quota and kept it. More prisoners, more profit. . 

For all the ranting I do about politics, I seldom to never have these kinds of dreams. I have mostly anxiety dreams. A common theme is being lost, even in places I know well, like being lost in Washington, DC.   

But then, this was kind of like that. I was lost in this town, but it was a town I did not know.  I don't know how I got there.   

Times.com

I pondered it over my morning coffee, and I've been pondering it ever since. It must have been the news of the day that Biden was making sure our government was NOT in the private prison business. About time. 

Imprisoning people for profit is a reprehensible idea on the face of it. Reports on private prisons, including a DOJ Inspector General's report in August 2016, confirm it. So do several books and articles, such as  Lauren Brooke Eisen's "Inside Private Prisons," based on her excellent investigative reporting.

Eisen writes: "When the tough-on-crime politics of the 1980s overcrowded state prisons, private companies saw potential profit in building and operating correctional facilities. Today more than a hundred thousand of the 1.5 million incarcerated Americans are held in private prisons in twenty-nine states and federal corrections. Private prisons are criticized for making money off mass incarceration—to the tune of $5 billion in annual revenue." Amazing, isn't it?

These prisons are also a horror story of  social control. My dream threw in control of population growth, too. I'm no Stephen King, but only dystopian ideas and images come to mind.  Who monitors private prisons? Why are they notoriously overcrowded? Who are the prisoners?  Right, mostly African-Americans, mostly people of color, and also thousands of immigrant detainees.  Images of 1984 the novel swim in my head.  

It's time to abolish for-profit prisons, on legal, moral and ethical grounds. 

Some sources: 

1)  https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/cruel-inhuman-and-degrading-conditions/end-prisons-profit  

2)  https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2016/e1606.pdf

3) Lauren-Brooke Eisen’s work as a prosecutor, journalist, and attorney at policy think tanks. Inside Private Prisons blends investigative reporting and quantitative and historical research to analyze privatized corrections in America.

4)  https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-prisons-corrections-corporation-inmates-investigation-bauer/ Mother Jones sent journalist Shane Bauer to work in a private prison in Louisiana. We get a blow-by-blow account of his days in this long investigative journalism piece.  

5)  https://time.com/5013760/american-private-prisons-donald-trump/  

6) https://ndsmcobserver.com/2020/09/abolish-private-prisons/ A group of Notre Dame students and faculty, called "Abolish Private Prisons," has filed a law suit. They want the college to divest from Private Prison investments. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops and 43 Bishops of the South have called for an end to for-profit prisons "because they are not consistent with treating each and every person with dignity." 

Remembering friend Jim Allnutt, 1947 to 2021

 

                                                      Tea with Jim at Lamb House, Rye, UK, 2018. Photo by Edward.

"I am a thousand winds that blow...I am a thousand stars that shine at night..." Indian proverb. 

Jim's hybrid, one of my very favorites.
Photo by Edward.

Jim's lily

I was able to livestream a memorial service in Rochester, Kent, UK, today, for my friend Jim Allnutt, thanks to his loving husband Edward, or Teddy as Jim called him. Edward paid attention to every aspect of the service, from the minister's remarks, to his own loving eulogy, the stories, photos, the music, the poems. We could feel Jim's spirit in every detail, whether we attended in person or online. Edward made sure of it.  Love spread across the ocean today.

Now I know Jim can be called Jim Eagle Feather, because his service was inspired by his profound belief in the spiritual and cultural life of  Native Americans. "All life is inter-connected," they believed, and so Jim believed and practiced. I loved the Southwest shirts he wore, and his jewelry especially. The brilliant silver and turqoise. I learned he made jewelry too. Jim's life was "a life of beauty and value....full of compassion, kindness, love...."  I feel so fortunate that we crossed paths, even briefly. 

Native American
Eagle feather
headdress

Jim shared his love of the natural world, the English countryside, his own stunning garden, and gardens everywhere, with me and my friend Linda Furney when we visited England a few years ago. I always thought I would return to Rochester, Kent, but it looks like our reunion will take place in the Spirit World, where Jim now resides in glorious spendor. I can envision him in this Native American eagle feathers head-dress.

I do have wonderful memories of our visit. A day exploring Rochester, with its bold red brick castle, the ancient Cathedral, the Satis House of Dickens' Great Expectations, the lovely garden for tea. I thought I heard Dickens whispering his paeans to pastoral Kent county as we strolled the very streets he walked. I grew up in another Rochester, in New York state, so there was that connection too. When I think Rochester, I have two lovely places to remember.

Then, there was a fabulous day spent at the iconic Canturbury Cathedral, and another day tripping through the green and pleasant lands of Kent and Sussez on the way to Rye. Edward was driving and he told us stories and showed us special places as only a native can. In the charming port town of Rye, we strolled the streets and the harbour, visited Rye Castle (which once served as a women's prison) and toured the wonderfully restored Lamb House, the 18th-century mansion where American novelist Henry James once lived.  We savored tea and cakes in the garden, enveloped in beauty and serenity.  

 

Rye and the English countryside with Jim and Edward.

And then there's Jim the Gardener, who lovingly created and tended the beautiful garden he shared with Edward, hybridized day lilies, so stunning, planted the most exquisite flowers, roses and shrubs in all varieties, shapes, and sizes.  They were colorful, and healthy. Edward was his photographer.  He took so many exquisite photos I have a large album titled "Jim's Flowers and Garden by Ed." 

Jim's purple poppy

Spring is coming to England soon, and signs of Jim will be everywhere. The sprightly, funny, playful dogs will miss him, too. Edward will sing to him. Jim made life beautiful and kind. That's how I'll always remember him. 

Jim's pink rose, photo by Edward.

His stunning orange rose. Photo by Edward.
Gorgeous, isn't it?

Sunset by Edward

https://www.boom.uk.com/clients/threebrand/jim-allnut/?page=2 Jim's service.

https://francurrocaryblog.blogspot.com/2018/09/life-enhanced-southeastern-english.html, blog on our visit to Rochester, Kent, UK.