On May 25, 1942, only twenty days after arriving at the Tanforan internment camp located just outside of San Francisco, Chiura Obata leading along with interned artist Mine Okubo, and Hisako Hibi started the Tanforan art School.  My map features these three artists and showcases the works that were created during the time of their forced imprisonment.  A good amount of the art created during this time served as a way of coping and surviving, as well as expressing the trauma of the situation.

My map is about the artist who founded the Tanforan Art School which was started in the concentration camps in Tanforan and later moved to Topaz Utah. My map describes the artist who were encouraged to continue teaching, learning, creating, and sharing their passion for art and its ability to bring peace and perspective. I focused on the stunning art created during the imprisonment by three of the founders of the Tanforan Art school while using my own artistic process to bridge connections.  The art created during this time should be celebrated for its beauty and continues to constitute the perseverance of the human spirit. I attempted to connect with the art by holding space for the hardships and injustices endured by these artists. Since we all deal with trauma on some level, being human is inherently traumatic.  I wanted to expose this universally felt message of trauma and use it to transcend the barrier between time, culture, and gender.  In my map I wanted to abstract the works already created and add my own perspective through mark making to develop my own personal relationship with the art and the people who created it.  I believe by developing a genuine connection with these artists I can promote empathy and healing.  Through this awareness we can try to manifest a reality in which an injustice of this magnitude will never repeat itself.