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MA: How did you feel when you finally finished your painting, and you finished the Camp Days collection? What was that like for you, after a year?

CQ: It was very cathartic. I just felt that I'd gotten rid of a lot of demons in my life. And we never talked about camp, no family talked about camp, I mean, that I know of. And my family certainly didn't talk about camp. My dad was always, "Things are in the past, and you only are here in the present, and you plan for the future," that kind of thing. And you take everything as it comes. He was raised in the Meiji era, which is, no matter which station in life you're in, you do the best you can. And that sort of really rang a true... that was sort of my mantra my whole life, I think, is, "No matter where you're at in your life, no matter what you're doing, you do the very best you can. And you never hurt anyone else, and you never hurt yourself. And you help everyone you can, whether it's someone very great or someone very, very not-so-great." And it sort of came to me that that's sort of what I've done all my life, is follow that theme, even though I've only heard it once or twice from my dad, you know. And I think a lot of Japanese families are like that. That I felt a big weight off of me, I wanted to do some more paintings, but I knew that I wanted to start painting outside, and I didn't want to be inside anymore.

And I know Marge had said, four months before my exhibit was going to be, she said -- this is our gallery dealer -- she said, "Well, what's your theme this year?" 'Cause I'd always had a great theme. And I said, "Oh, it's just going to be Camp Days." And she said, "Oh, like summer camp?" I said, "No, it's going to be Camp Days, the World War II years, the concentration camp when we were in there." And she said, "Oh, that's sounds good." She was like, "Oh, that sounds good." And I said, "Well, Marge, I don't think it's really going to be great for you guys because I'm not going to sell these very much. I don't think very many people are gonna want these paintings because they're my personal experiences. And I don't think people are that interested in my personal experiences." And she said, "Oh, don't worry, Chiz, just make them cheap." So I said, "Good idea." [Laughs] So that's how it went. And so I had my show, and I sold a lot of paintings. And a lot of people who bought my paintings didn't even realize they were of the concentration camps. They saw "Camp Days 1942-1945," but you know, a lot of people just don't read... I didn't even have a, I had a little bio of myself as an artist, so I didn't have anything in there about my even being in camp. Because you're just talking about, you know, your, the people who influenced you, the people that were your teachers, things like that, and how you feel about your painting and what you're painting.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.