Camp life around the Mess Hall in Jerome Camp. The focal point is the grey mess hall at the center with a sign over its open door, "Mess Hall." A figure dressed in navy with a white apron and hat stands in the doorway holding two buckets. A small fenced garden with two withered bushes is visible in front to the right. Two trash cans sit on a platform in front of the garden. A third can sits on the ground next to the flag pole which stands directly in front of the open door. The American flag blows in the wind. Rows of barracks with smoking stovepipes flank the mess hall. Brush and fence span the foreground, broken at the center by a man carrying a fishing pole and bucket as he walks toward the viewer over a walkway. In the lower right corner a Block 23 sign sticks out of the ground. A covered truck with "WRA" on its tarp is parked in front of the barracks at left. To the right, in the open area before the mess hall, a man holding a shovel walks toward the hall, while two men approach from the left side of the building. On the right, two women wearing dresses, aprons, shawls and hats stand talking as another figure in a blue cape approaches from the right of the building. In the background tops of brown trees are visible over barracks and behind a watchtower with a soldier, left. The sky is dark.

Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto Written on back, top center: Mess Hall-Jerome Camp, 32 1/2" x 23 1/2"

painting
H: 23.25 in, W: 32 in, Frame: 25.5 x 34.25 x 1 in
canvas
oil

Denson, Ark., ca. 1942
(92.97.142)
Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum
Henry Sugimoto Collection

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