During the World War II, there were ten internment camps where 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast were shipped to. Two of them were located in Rohwer and Jerome in Arkansas. 8,000 Japanese Americans were detained in the Rohwer Relocation Center; 7,000 more were sent to Jerome.
These Japanese Americans worked to clear the swamp, among other things, to receive an income. The administration encouraged them to participate in activities in their leisure time. Ms. Jamie Vogel, an art teacher, saved the pieces of art created by her students. Vogel willed the collention to her friend, Rosalie Gould. Gould donated all the collection to the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. The collection is on display from September 9 to November 26, 2011. http://www.butlercenter.org/
The art varies from camp scenes in watercolor, found-objects arts and crafts (The Japanese American at Rohwer camp converted anything they saw to arts and crafts), wood carving, furniture, bird pins, murals to portraits and posters. Some internees used Eastern artistic techniques such as brush strokes.
What amazed me most was in spite of their dire situations, the colors they used were beautiful reflecting four seasons. Some pictures depicted my favorite "big sky."
I was tickled by the comment on page 80, The Critical Handbook: "If you were to travel back in time to 1950 and land in a critique at most any art school . . . . The nude would b taken for granted, most of the students and faculty would be well-dressed males of European heritage . . . . The model would typically be female." The brochure of "The Art of Living: Japanese American Creative Experience at Rowher" has a picture of "artisits working at Rohwer". The picture was taken between 1942 and 1945. A casually clad male model is sitting on a little stage, and mostly female Japanese are sketching with a pencil. I have become a fan of Ms. Jamie Vogel.
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