It was a privilege to meet Marlene Howell (née Seki) in person at her gallery opening reception at the Goldfinch Arts Centre in Colwood, B.C. Colwood is a suburb of Victoria. Her exhibition is entitled To See is to Remember and it includes 12 of her works created over the past two years. As well, there was a display of Japanese dolls and a taiko performance by Uminari Taiko. The exhibition runs from July 9 to August 2.

The centerpiece of the exhibit was a beautiful painting/collage entitled “The Kimono”. It consists of three suspended panels in the shape of a kimono. A painting of confiscated Japanese Canadian fishing boats makes up the obi with the rest made up of a collage of newspaper clippings involving Japanese Canadians from WWII collected by my grandfather Kishizo Kimura and donated to the Nikkei National Museum. The chains on which the paintings were suspended represent the struggle and incarceration of Japanese Canadians. The work is very meaningful to my family and I liked it so much that I purchased it!

Other art pieces included Mourning Sky that I discussed in a previous post and a selection of paintings that evoke memories of her time in Africa and the Japanese Canadian experience such as rice bags, pots, a Singer sewing machine, and a box of Japanese oranges.

I chatted with other interesting people including Doug Kobayashi and Mike Abe. Doug is the mayor of Colwood and had an interesting story of his experience as an actor in season two of Shogun. He signed up as an extra but they liked him so much that they gave him an acting role. He got his own dressing room and got chauffeured around. Mike is the Project Manager for Past Wrongs, Future Choices, the president of the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society, and is the leader of the Internment Bus Tour and University of Victoria Field School in which my daughter is participating for the next two weeks. We discussed some of our common histories and stories and people in the upcoming tour.