“con.Text” reception at the de Saisset Museum

My ongoing show “con.Text”, featuring 18 ink on panel portraits, at the de Saisset Museum in Santa Clara will be having an outdoor reception Thursday, April 13, 2023 from 4-6 p.m. 

There will be light refreshments outside on the lawns in front of the museum and you are welcome to take your time in the galleries. 

The museum is located on the campus of Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95050  (408) 554-4528.

If you cannot make it mid week Thursday we have scheduled small group walk throughs with me on Friday April 14 and Saturday April 15 at 11:30 -12:15pm and 1-1:45pm. Due to capacity restrictions advanced registration is suggested and will open soon.

2 of the 18 pieces hanging in the show:

“Tiffany” is the granddaughter of Roy Sakasegawa who was drafted

into the U.S. army in August 1941 from Salinas CA four months before

Pearl Harbor. After the attack Roy’s family was incarcerated along with 120

thousand people of Japanese descent, 62% were American, in Poston

Arizona one of the 10 internment camps set up to house the internees.

Roy went on to serve in the 442nd Infantry division composed of Japanese

Americans who fought mostly in Europe. The 442nd Regiment is the most

decorated unit for its size in U.S. Military history. The unit earned more

than 18,000 awards including 21 Medal of Honor.

The text used to make the marks is Executive Order 9102 that

established the War Relocation Authority the agency responsible for the

forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

Lorraine’s great grandfather first came to the United States in the

1850’s on a 30ft Sampan, a Chinese fishing vessel not designed to cross an

ocean. He landed in Mendocino County and immediately began work in

the lumber camps as a cook. After going to China in the late 1880’s he tried

to return to his family in California, but due to the Chinese Exclusion Act

of 1882 he had to pay to take the name of a citizen to be allowed back to

his family in California.

The text used to render the portrait is The Chinese Exclusion Act of

1882, which was the first and only law to prevent all members of a specific

ethnic group from immigrating to the United States. Many Americans on

the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to Chinese

workers so Congress passed the Exclusion Act to placate worker demands

and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”