"Tule Lake opened May 26, 1942, detaining persons of Japanese descent removed from western Washington, Oregon and Northern California. With a peak population of 18,700, Tule Lake was the largest of the camps - the only one converted into a maximum-security segregation center, ruled under martial law and occupied by the Army." (excerpt from the DENSHO website)
Recently, I discovered a collection of photo albums my grandmother's older sister, Clara, began collecting in the 1930s. The photos tell Clara's story as a young woman working as a tour guide through the Japanese Pavillion's silk-making exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair in San Francisco. Later, they show a life lived behind bars at Tule Lake Camp. Despite the hardships many of her photos from this time depict young couples, posing and smiling as they seem to try to make the best of their situation.
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Danelle and Shafer came by to pick up their commission cutaway of the Ballard railroad bridge in a 1954 MG! Definitely the coolest way my paper cutaways have traveled. Bradley Taylor show our new collaborative works for the month of July in the Tashiro Kaplan Building Cafe Vita in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square neighborhood. This show continues our woodblock print with paper cutaway overlay prints which combine whimsical science scenes with elements of Cambodian culture. See more of Bradley's work at www.bradleytaylorart.com Five paper cutaways are going onto the wall at West Elm's South Lake Union store in Seattle. They will be featured Saturday May 3rd for their Mother's Day Event. The exhibition will be on display through the month of May. I'm excited to have my work be part of this beautiful store! This paper cutaway was part of the first show at the brand new gallery space called the Yakima Light Project Gallery which opened last night. Read a review in the Yakima Herald Republic. I'm happy to announce my Seattle paper cutaway exhibition schedule for 2014... Feb 27 - June UNIVERSITY HOUSE, Wallingford May 11 - WEST ELM, South Lake Union May 17 - September 14 THE LAKESHORE, Rainier Beach July - CAFE VITA, Pioneer Square November 21 - January 23 GAGE ACADEMY OF ART, Capitol Hill November-December - CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS Alumni Gallery, South Lake Union More details to follow! (Excerpt from the article by Athima Chansanchai) See the video and read the full article at Microsoft's THE FIREHOSE blog "Because Cambodia is a significant passion of hers, she’s often on Skype connecting with people she’s met there and contacts who are helping her projects. One is her first children’s book, which teaches English to Cambodian children through culturally relevant content. She’s also creating a reading room, after the Khmer Rouge genocide decimated Cambodia’s language and culture in the 1970s. She paused the pursuit of her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts degree in 2008 to travel to Australia and Southeast Asia. Trying to get to Thailand, she ended up in Cambodia, and she fell in love with the country, its culture and its people. The former oil painter learned how to design furniture – and clothes. The multi-talented Iida, a Seattle native of Japanese descent who is petite by western standards, was an XL in Cambodia, so she had to have her clothes custom made ($5 a dress). The impoverished young seamstresses she found weren’t being regularly paid, so she started a social enterprise, a clothing company that found instant customers in other expats who were in the same predicament – and it thrived. Iida provided a safe place for them to stay and work, and was able to pay them a fair wage that helped keep the company afloat after she left the country. The connecting thread of her varied interests is her documentarian nature. “When I travel, I have these experiences and I want to them share in an artistic way.” She shares them as an instructor too, teaching how to make paper cutaways at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. |
AuthorLauren Iida Archives
April 2016
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