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PW: So you're still at Fresno State, though? I'm still curious about what's happening in the art world at that time, too?
RO: Very little.
PW: Very little.
RO: I mean, other than because even though there was this thing that was happening throughout America and so on, at that time, of course, there were regional areas of art in the United States, the northeast, the southwest and so on. And it's not like today where you have the entire world at your hands via internet. And at that time then, your whole world of what art is was based on then where you were being taught at the university, it was after college at that time. That was my world, actually.
PW: And did Fresno have much of a gallery scene?
RO: No. In fact, that I remember as a senior student, there were a couple people that were pretty enthusiastic about making their original work and so on, and we realized there was no place for then college students to show their work. So what we did was this other young Black man, so we came down to Fresno, I mean, down to the inner city, we went to the (Californian Hotel). And we thought, where is there a place to show work and so on. We asked them, "Is it possible for us as graduate students at Fresno State to be able to show our work there? We would provide the easels, and we would set it up and man it and so on, and use your lobby basically as a show space?" They said, "Yeah, sure." And this was the hotel in Fresno at that time, the (Californian Hotel). So I remember then we took the initiative to do that, to go ahead and contact the manager and set up the shows and show our work at that time. That was one of the very few exhibitions of our work that took place. We didn't have a place to show at the college, they didn't have a gallery or anything at all.
PW: Did you live on campus?
RO: No, I lived off campus. There was a group of kids that were going to Fresno State, they were from Selma, and so we would then carpool up to Fresno.
<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.