<Begin Segment 20>

PW: All right, let's say we're back in the central valley after your...

RO: After service and so on, yeah.

PW: So where did you land?

RO: Well, I stayed at the, I came back to Selma and then helped at the restaurant and so on, then at that time, then I did start college. Went back to college at Fresno State.

PW: You said, "I'm going to back to graduate school?"

RO: Yeah. I say to go back, because it's a completely new campus. Because at that time, Fresno State College is where City College is now, and that's where I took all my art classes. So now all of a sudden I'm having to go in and catch a bus or drive then to the new campus, which was out in the boonies, which is where Fresno State is located now. So we were taking some classes there, and other classes at the original. So then at that time, even at that time, it was very new and so on. It was a new campus, new instructors, and everything was very, very different now, and your identity then becomes kind of skewed because before, you had this Japanese American guys and kids and so on, community that you hung around with. Now, all of a sudden, I knew I'd gone through then two years of the army and so on, now the community is open, it's very, very different. So then you are seeing other people that you can associate with.

PW: Did you graduate school by then?

RO: Well, this was basically, yes, I don't know what you would call it, I guess it was called graduate school, but it was after I had graduated and taking classes.

PW: Were you then in pursuit of a teaching credential?

RO: At that time I thought, because in the army, it so happened then the people I hung around with, several of them were teachers, they were basically from the East Coast, and so they had gotten degrees and were teaching. And they were talking about the idea of what job training he had to do and whatever, and now teaching. And I thought, well, you know, that might be a thing to do. So that's what I want to do, is pursue a teaching credential, so I took education classes and tried to get my degree, my credential.

PW: And were you creating art at this time?

RO: Well, yes, at that time. You were doing as much as you could, and most of the classes that I took in the art department were basically independent study, so that you worked out a curriculum. And I was still working with the same instructor, and he was very good about allowing me to do that.

PW: And was this Musselman? Like were you mostly leaning towards painting?

RO: Mostly then toward graphic design and painting and so on.

PW: And then did you have all of that happening on campus or did you have a space in your house?

RO: No.

PW: Your parents...

RO: I remember then I would use the dining room of my mother and father's house, and lay out all of the paints and this and that, then I would get to a point where I would then get tired and I would leave it. So then I would leave this mess on the dining table, I'm sure they woke up and said, "What's this?"

PW: And was this mostly oil or...

RO: No, it was basically... well most of the oil painting and things that I did basically at the campus, I rarely brought things home. I think it was probably more graphic design, things that were using water based acrylic, not acrylic, but we'd call it tempera at that time.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.