Five Points Merchants, 1950s
Japanese Arts Network, Denver Theatre District 
Installed August 2021

ARTIST STATEMENT

​"For this commission, I was very inspired by this photo provided to me by the Japanese Arts Network of a desegregated youth baseball team, the Five Points Merchants, in Denver, taken in the 1950s.

​I was fascinated by the team and the historical significance of seeing African American, Latinx, and Japanese teens playing together at this time; pre-civil rights movement, just after the WWII concentration camps for people of Japanese ancestry had been emptied."

Billboard 37.4 x 100 feet (11.4 x 30.5 meters), Denver. Photo: Third Dune Productions

​"The team members look so relaxed and joyful, each with their own unique expressions, and I was very pleased to have access to this beautiful photo as inspiration for my piece.
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I decided to depict the team members in black and white, in their team jerseys and hats with their gear, as the photo was in black and white and then add a colorful floral tapestry of Colorado Blue Columbine and Matsutake mushrooms."

Photo courtesy of Mary Otsuka