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AI: Well, I also want you to talk a little bit about the "Memories of Childhood" and how that series came about and in fact was added to the tour.

RS: Yeah, actually, quite a few years before the idea for "An American Diary" came up in my gallery in New York, the artists in her gallery -- she represented fourteen artists -- and most of us were artists of color or women. And she asked each of us to do a series of small paintings on paper that would be called "Memories of Childhood," that represented our first ten memories of life, knowing that because each of us had unconventional backgrounds, we're not your average middle-class white male, that it would make an interesting show, which it did, because Jan Quintasee Smith was born on a reservation and given away by her mother. That's one of her first recollections of life. And so everyone in there had an interesting story. And so we each did ten small paintings and I did the same paintings that are in that series "Memories of Childhood." And then the series was framed up by Bernice, the dealer, and they were put in a show that was shipped all over the country for two years. And so, when "American Diary" came up, the idea came up by Bernice, "Let's do a lithograph series of those paintings. We won't just copy them, you do them all over again, and make modifications." And so, I did that, and then started thinking, "This should be part of that show." And so when the show started to tour it opened in Philadelphia, went to Wisconsin, but wasn't ready until it got to New York. And right before the show we were framing them up and everything to get them into that show, and then from that point on traveled with the rest of the exhibition. So, that's how that was done. It's in book form and it was produced by Bernice and the printer. It was a very expensive venture but they paid for the whole thing and it's, just about all of them have been sold. Actually, I gave one away to everybody that took the show, so, it's, to be sure to leave some of that experience with each venue.

<End Segment 64> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.