<Begin Segment 23>

TL: Did George, was he attending classes at that time? Had he already begun graduate school?

AT: Yes, yes.

TL: And was he near the end of his studies, or was he kind of beginning his graduate work?

AT: He was doing his graduate work for his master's degree, but he has some... he already had quite a bit of sculpture and art degree so he was teaching part time so that helped, yes. It was nice, one or two classes. And then eventually he went into full-time teaching.

TL: Can you describe your early, kind of these early years of marriage, what you were busy doing and maybe some of the things you were thinking about as you both established your family.

AT: Well, Gerry came the same year. We (were) married in January and it might have been, but I was so busy with just taking care of the children. So I don't think I was thinking of anything more than... George had many good artist friends and they were coming to this little shack to have dinner and drinks and all that. He kept me busy. [Laughs] I don't think he could afford to take anybody out to dinner. In those days that was very hard thing to do, to eat out. I think everybody ate at home.

TL: As you met more of his artist friends, did you get a... did you get a clear idea of the kind of artist that George was becoming?

AT: I don't think I had any serious thinking about that, but I trust in him. His friends were all creative artists with the university teaching. They were all nice people. They were certainly kind to me. They probably thought I was so naive about art so they were all trying to be good to me. But we did have many Japanese dinner in this little shack house. [Laughs] George (was) more proud to serve Japanese food.

TL: How did he maintain a balance between teaching and creating his own artwork?

AT: That was, teaching was full time, but I think his creative works were so natural to him that whenever he had little time, he would be doing his works, or he took advantage of family outing and did sketching, painting outdoor scenes. We have many paintings still left in the house. Children were having snow fight in the Mt. Rainier then he would be just sitting around and sketching.

TL: Did he talk much about his ideas of art with you?

AT: Not at all. He didn't try to explain or try to make me understand about art. He never lectured me about that and it was just part of his life and my job was to raise family, I guess.

TL: Were you planning on having a large family?

AT: Not at all.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.