Collection:
JDCM Education
Object ID:
EDU.0512
Accession#:
EDU
Credit Line:
Donated by multiple sources.
Object Name:
Label
Title:
Fumi Matsumoto Art Intro Panel
Date:
2014
Year Range from:
1941
Year Range to:
1951
Description:
Fumi Matsumoto
I have always been influenced by Japanese culture and history, perhaps because I was born in Japan and came to America at the age of four. My mother was born and raised in Japan and my father is Nisei (Second Generation Japanese American born in Los Angeles, California). Much of my artwork reflects the Japanese aesthetic and often the Japanese American experience. I use some Japanese techniques in making my pieces, such as raku ceramics, sumi ink painting, origami (paper folding), kirigami (paper cutting), handmade paper and block printing. My mixed media work uses recycled and found objects.
My father, Roy Matsumoto, was living in Los Angeles, California when Order 9066 was issued. He was first sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center (race track) and then incarcerated at Jerome, Arkansas internment camp. He then volunteered for the U.S. Army and served in Burma with Merrill's Marauders. There is a recent short documentary movie about my father, "Honor and Sacrifice, the Roy Matsumoto Story". He is a decorated Nisei veteran who was responsible for saving his fellow Marauders in Burma. He received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011 for his service. My mother, Kimiko, lived in Japan during the war so was never in a camp. My parents met and wed after WWII when my father was in Tokyo with the occupation forces. I was born in Tokyo in 1948 and we did not move back to America until 1952.
I grew up in Berkeley, California and spent most of my youth in the San Francisco Bay Area but moved to Virginia and lived on an army base for four years. I returned to Berkeley and attended high school there and then graduated from the University of California with a degree in art and education. I spent one year abroad as a UCB exchange student in Tokyo, where I studied Japanese art, language and culture.
In 1979, I visited Denali Park in Alaska and was so inspired by the awesome grandeur of the wilderness and the magnificent wildlife that I moved to Alaska that next year and have been living in Alaska ever since. I have lived and taught art in both Fairbanks and Juneau for the past 33 years and consider myself to be an Alaskan artist as well as Japanese American.
To me, the creative process is the most enjoyable aspect of art. I love to begin with an idea or concept and then design and create the piece, often working out technical problems and challenges that arise before the work is completed. I have strong emotional ties to the work I am submitting because so much of it uses images of my family members and is about my personal history. I continue to be inspired by the struggles of past generations of Japanese Americans and their ability to endure hardships as well as appreciate their successes. I hope that through my artwork, I can somehow share some of their stories with others.
* Fumi Matsumoto loaned 7 works of art for display during the exhibition.
Image captions (All images provided by Fumi Matsumoto):
Matsumoto Family: Roy, Karen, Fumi, and Kimiko, 2014.
Roy and Kimiko Matusmoto.
I have always been influenced by Japanese culture and history, perhaps because I was born in Japan and came to America at the age of four. My mother was born and raised in Japan and my father is Nisei (Second Generation Japanese American born in Los Angeles, California). Much of my artwork reflects the Japanese aesthetic and often the Japanese American experience. I use some Japanese techniques in making my pieces, such as raku ceramics, sumi ink painting, origami (paper folding), kirigami (paper cutting), handmade paper and block printing. My mixed media work uses recycled and found objects.
My father, Roy Matsumoto, was living in Los Angeles, California when Order 9066 was issued. He was first sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center (race track) and then incarcerated at Jerome, Arkansas internment camp. He then volunteered for the U.S. Army and served in Burma with Merrill's Marauders. There is a recent short documentary movie about my father, "Honor and Sacrifice, the Roy Matsumoto Story". He is a decorated Nisei veteran who was responsible for saving his fellow Marauders in Burma. He received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011 for his service. My mother, Kimiko, lived in Japan during the war so was never in a camp. My parents met and wed after WWII when my father was in Tokyo with the occupation forces. I was born in Tokyo in 1948 and we did not move back to America until 1952.
I grew up in Berkeley, California and spent most of my youth in the San Francisco Bay Area but moved to Virginia and lived on an army base for four years. I returned to Berkeley and attended high school there and then graduated from the University of California with a degree in art and education. I spent one year abroad as a UCB exchange student in Tokyo, where I studied Japanese art, language and culture.
In 1979, I visited Denali Park in Alaska and was so inspired by the awesome grandeur of the wilderness and the magnificent wildlife that I moved to Alaska that next year and have been living in Alaska ever since. I have lived and taught art in both Fairbanks and Juneau for the past 33 years and consider myself to be an Alaskan artist as well as Japanese American.
To me, the creative process is the most enjoyable aspect of art. I love to begin with an idea or concept and then design and create the piece, often working out technical problems and challenges that arise before the work is completed. I have strong emotional ties to the work I am submitting because so much of it uses images of my family members and is about my personal history. I continue to be inspired by the struggles of past generations of Japanese Americans and their ability to endure hardships as well as appreciate their successes. I hope that through my artwork, I can somehow share some of their stories with others.
* Fumi Matsumoto loaned 7 works of art for display during the exhibition.
Image captions (All images provided by Fumi Matsumoto):
Matsumoto Family: Roy, Karen, Fumi, and Kimiko, 2014.
Roy and Kimiko Matusmoto.
People:
Shaw, Albert
Hikido, Alice (Tanaka)
Pekovich, Andy
Marriott, Betty Echigo
Fischer, Brent
Lundy, Connie
Gray, David
Belcher, Dixie Johnson
Matsumoto, Fumi
Chaney, Greg
Kumasaka, Haruo
Pekovich, Janet Borgen
Homan, Janie Hollenbach
Triplette, Jackie Honeywell
Triplette, Jim
Shackelford, Marjorie Alstead
Darlin, Marie
Kanazawa, Mark
Bennett, Marsha Erwin
Abo, Mary (Tanaka)
Albright, Nancy (Fukuyama)
Wanamaker, Randy
Sumada, Reiko
Grummett, Karleen Alstead
Grummett, Roger
Inouye, Ron
Wayne, Rose (Komatsubara)
Kito, Sam, Jr.
Hikido, Alice (Tanaka)
Pekovich, Andy
Marriott, Betty Echigo
Fischer, Brent
Lundy, Connie
Gray, David
Belcher, Dixie Johnson
Matsumoto, Fumi
Chaney, Greg
Kumasaka, Haruo
Pekovich, Janet Borgen
Homan, Janie Hollenbach
Triplette, Jackie Honeywell
Triplette, Jim
Shackelford, Marjorie Alstead
Darlin, Marie
Kanazawa, Mark
Bennett, Marsha Erwin
Abo, Mary (Tanaka)
Albright, Nancy (Fukuyama)
Wanamaker, Randy
Sumada, Reiko
Grummett, Karleen Alstead
Grummett, Roger
Inouye, Ron
Wayne, Rose (Komatsubara)
Kito, Sam, Jr.
Search Terms:
WW2
Japanese
Internment
Japanese
Internment
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