Happy Birthday, Shigeyoshi and Shizuko

from the February 5, 1934 Seattle Post-Intelligence, "School Claims Twin Record with 11 Pairs" Shig and Shiz are at the very bottom, ten years old (bless their cotton socks!)

day of infamy

My 84 and a half year old friend (and former JA internee), Kiku, called last night to talk to me about my use of the word "internment camp" instead of "concentration camp" in my lecture at the library. I can see the argument either way, but have yet to be totally convinced to the use of concentration camp. Anyone up to swaying me either direction?

The library display I curated of Japanese American resources at the Olin Library, Mills College, is up now. I need to go by one more time to fuss with the signage, but by in large, I am happy with what I pulled together with the help of librarian Nancy McKay.

Shig! lecture at the San Francisco Main Public Library

 "No, I'm not a Chinese-American. I'm an American Eskimo." Hastily departed matron from Duluth: "How interesting!" Furious deadbeat, after having been turned out of City Lights Bookstore for bothering everybody by spare-changing, "Who that fat Chinaman think he is anyway?" 

This large, thick, imposing person of the small feet, the spiky black beard like a fence around his aloofness, he of the aplomb, this is Shigeyoshi Murao, known far and wide as "Shig". He is manager and part-owner, with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, of the bookstore; he has been there from the beginning."

— from Common Soldiers by Janet Richards

the 2009 calendars are here!

At long long last, I have crawled out from under my annual private letterpress hibernation and emerged with the 2009 "Edges of Bounty" letterpress linoleum calendar. The entire project is based on a miraculous book entitled "Edges of Bounty" that was published earlier this year by Heyday Books, written by William Emery, featuring the magnificent photographs of Scott Squire.

It is a California Central Valley, food themed calendar with thirteen original linoleum blocks, printed on delectable Canson papers in delectable hues. All quotations throughout the calendar are borrowed liberally from William's essays, set in Bell MT typeface, which were printed from polymer plates. Calendars are $45 each; $3 per calendar for shipping. 8" x 12.5" trim size, limited edition of 100 calendars.

Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah!

I will be tabling at a few holiday fairs over the next few weeks, selling calendars in person:

21 Grand/Art Murmur in Downtown Oakland:

Friday December 5th, 7-10 p.m.

San Francisco Center for the Book Holiday Fair

Friday (6-8) and Saturday (12-5), December 12th

Root Division Holiday Fair

Saturday, December 12th, 7-10 p.m.

Or just get in touch- I can swaddle up these muffins in no time and deliver them piping hot to your very own door!

2009 Edges of Bounty calendar

Living at the Center for the Book letterpress printing the 2009 Edges of Bounty calendar. Here are some previews of my studio time.

edges of bounty 2008 calendar

A very quick posting today, as I just arrived home from a transformative artists' hangout at Mono Lake last night (more on that soon) and am off to Minneapolis, MN to visit Coffee House Press this morning.

I've finally settled on a subject for my 2008 calendar- with their permission, I'm adapting the stellar photography (Scott Squire) and gorgeous prose (William Emery) from a project they spent several years creating (a year traveling around the Central Valley, a year to finish writing, editing and going through production), and which is now in published book form by Heyday Books, as well as on the web through www. edgesofbounty. com. Jeepers, I'm really not explaining the Edges of Bounty project adequately, so forgive me until I get back into the saddle this weekend.

Here are a few sketches, still to be adapted into 5 x 7 linoblocks.

evolve

Little Lino (12" x 12") just in time for the Roadworks Steamroller prints this Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at the San Francisco Center for the Book. A real record- I started drawing yesterday afternoon and made my first marks on the lino late last night and finished before 11 p.m. the next day. whew!

I mentioned to Minette that it looks suspiciously like a tattoo design, replete with unfurling ribbon banner. Seeing that I am going through a pretty major transition in my life right now, it seems fitting that I went through the process of carving the tattoo out of the fleshy tan linoleum without actually getting the tattoo staccato-ed onto my body.

mimi, miyeko, bachan, mom

I made this book in 1997, in honor of my maternal grandmother, Miyeko Okamura Kebo, who celebrated her 80th birthday that year (she is still alive, although extremely frail and feeble, living in Fresno with my Aunt Janis. But give her a break! She's 91 years old.) I am named after this grandmother, and this book was one of the very first I ever assembled, designed, printed and bound. In it is a collection of letters and truly extraordinary photographs of my Bachan that I solicited from family friends and relatives in her honor, and since I only made five copies at the time, I finally got down and scanned the book for wider distribution. You may note that my piece (the final letter in the book) is abnormally historical in nature. See? I was buck-toothed and hopelessly covered in archival dust eleven years ago.

One errata: the title poem is written by Kathy Kebo. Her name was accidentally left off the page in my original design (which was done with tremendous support from Bruce Smith of the Arts & Crafts Press). 

**RATS! Stupid stupid Blogger is acting jinky and for some reason, most of the images are lying on their sides. Sigh. Bear with me while I try to remedy this malfunctioning post.

portraits of Quincy

I received a blog request for color photos of Quince! 

Some quick backstory though, since you asked. Quincy came about via a high school biology teacher and closet herpetologist (hey, Mr. Herrick!) and was a graduation gift to me from my one and only brother, Doug. That was in 1992, the year I graduated from Mills College. Quince was but a little chopstick of orange delight then, so tiny that I could hold her in the palm of my hand and had to feed her baby doll pinkie newborn mice.  Photos of Quincy at that stage must exist somewhere- I'm going to have to dig into my archives to find them though, so patience, dear readers.

She is named after the "coroner of the stars" Quincy, M.D., that crazy 70s television drama starring Jack Klugman, which has an excellent theme song, by the way. Rumor has it that the tv show "Quincy" was actually modeled after the real-life Japanese coroner, Thomas Noguchi.  Noguchi has penned several memoirs about his life in the forensic sciences, and also appeared as himself in the classic high school shocker, "Faces of Death"!