Densho Digital Archive - Yoshino Grace Fukuhara Niwa Interview (denshovh-nyoshino-01-0008)

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AL: Was Helen able... so we were talking before the interview about Helen losing her sight from being premature. Was she able to go to regular schools at that time? I mean, did they have the equivalent of what we call special ed. today, for her?

YN: She started at Deer Park, that's my best recollection, and then she went to private schools during the week and came home on the weekend. And she eventually went on to Castra University and got her bachelor's degree.

AL: And she is also an artist?

YN: She's also an artist, yes.

AL: Did anybody else in your immediate family have the artistic streak besides your dad and your younger sister?

YN: No. [Laughs]

AL: Do you think your father encouraged her as an artist, or did she just come to that on her own?

YN: I don't know, because I wasn't home too much then. But I think that's... I think he encouraged it, but he was always a little skeptical about how much was really what she was doing, because selection of colors and things, it was all tactile.

AL: So did your father associate with other artists? I mean, you said he went to shows and workshops, and do you know about what year he started becoming... I don't know, I'm sure it was a long transition, but you know, where he started becoming, like you said, known as an artist and having his shows? Is that in the '50s, '60s?

YN: Oh, no, I'd say early '70s at the earliest. It was after I had moved out here.

AL: And he became known for... how would you describe his style? It's a very unique style.

YN: [Laughs] It's very unique, abstract. It's, I think, based on shapes and contrasting shades.

AL: And that was always his style? Because when I've seen the sketchbooks from Manzanar, I guess they're pen and ink or whatever, charcoal, I've always seen photocopies, so it's hard to tell. But it's a very different style than what now is known is known as Fukuhara's style.

YN: Yes. The early sketches were very simple, and I think you'd mentioned earlier about the sketches that he did of ten camps are very linear, I think. And I think as he was losing his eyesight, I think the colors became more vivid and bolder. But he did make a pamphlet of different styles that he did, and it was really... I was surprised because I've basically seen the evolution of his work. But to see some of the other things that he did, some portraits, he did some acrylics, he did some prints, but mainly watercolors.

AL: Did he have like a studio in New York? Or he just took over the kitchen table and painted away? Did he have a dedicated work space?

YN: Well, I mentioned building a house, a separate house from where I grew up. And he had a little room there that was his room, and it was stacked with everything. And when he came to Santa Monica to the family house, he had a studio built on the back of the garage, and he painted. And he painted every day, and he believed that everybody should, an artist should paint every day. And he would tell his students that he knew if they had not been working on their work during the week.

AL: How did he get into teaching art? You said he was doing that back in New York?

YN: He was the resident artist at State University of New York at Stonybrook, my alma mater. And I don't know how he got asked to do that, but he must have been teaching someplace before that.

AL: Do you think he was surprised by his success early on?

YN: I think so. And I suspect he didn't realize his talent was also in teaching, so had he known, maybe his path would have been different. But yes, he was fortunate to get involved at the Emeritus College in Santa Monica, and he took classes there and then he taught there.

AL: Did your mother have any involvement in his art life in the sense of, was she, did she do any art herself, or did she just keep the kids away so he could do it?

YN: Oh, goodness. Well, she was, she was not an artist per se, but was very supportive. She understood his love of art, and if he wanted to go to the gallery or go take workshops or whatever, she understood that that was important, and she supported him in that way.

AL: So when he was coming out west, how did he make his connections to the West Coast art community? Was that, that people knew about him back there, or did he have to sort of rebuild his reputation from the ground up back in Santa Monica, or a little of both?

YN: A little of both, but I think basically he did not have a following from New York, so he had to reestablish himself here. And as I said, Emeritus College of Santa Monica was a big influence and important to him. He made many friendships, and I think that's part of what happens in his workshops that he was taking to Manzanar, was the camaraderie and why people continued to come also.