Topaz Collages - The Art of Jeanie Kashima - Artist Presentation

Eugenia "Jeanie" Kashima was the first baby born in Topaz (Central Utah) Concentration Camp, on September 22, 1942. Seventy-eight years later during the initial stages of the COVID epidemic Jeanie would revisit her birth via art. This journey would produce the collages here.

Her family lived in Berkeley before the war where her grandfather Seizo Oishi owned a wholesale carnation nursery in Richmond, CA, and her father was a landscape architect. Persuant to E.O. 9066 her mother, father, and older brother were forced from their home and sent to Tanforan "Assembly Center" before being transfered to "Central Utah War Relocation Center," later known as Topaz.

The idea of these collages began with the discovery of family photographs, during the COVID quarantine. Each photo by Edna Horiuchi/Discover Nikkei photo was only about two by three inches.

The family was photographed by her uncles, both of whom had volunteered to serve in the US Army 442nd Regimential Combat Team. Cameras were not normally allowed in camp but her uncles snapped pictures of the family while on leave.

In 2020, Jeanie enlarged these photo images and added them to her mixed media to create the collages. Her mix of the historic images blended with her artistic interpretation add to the richness and depth of life in Topaz, and her return to Topaz in 2022.

These collages have been shown at at the Visions Museum of Textile Art in San Diego.

On Saturday, March 15, 2PM NJAHS hosts Jeanie Kashima's "Artist Meet & Greet program and discussion. Kashima's art is currently on display at the NJAHS Peace gallery in Japantown, 12 Noon- 5PM & first Sats of each month. EVENT IS FREE. Please RSVP (light refreshements provided)