Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1658/

Interviews

1. Family that saved her belongings during World War II

2. Thriving art culture at camp

3. Leaving everything behind

4. On the process of making her leaf bowls

5. On the process of creating her Japanese paper bowls

6. From double weaving to microfilament “flat” hangings

7. Marriage to Bob Stocksdale

8. Moving to Cincinnati after Topaz

9. Learning how to weave

10. Mother also wove growing up

Sekimachi,Kay

(b. 1926) Artist

Thriving art culture at camp

My younger sister and I took advantage of the free time we had there. Chiura Obata organized an art school. And so she, my younger sister, and I went out and painted every day and we would go to the art school and watch Professor Obata demonstrate. I also got acquainted with Mine Okubo and I hung around her a lot. She was a strong willed woman. She walked around Tanforan and also Topaz with a clipboard and she drew every minute. Everybody was painting in all media, but I love water colors, and so that was my - kind of my chosen medium.

artists arts art schools Chiura Obata Miné Okubo schools Topaz United States Utah World War II World War II camps

Date: November 23, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Patricia Wakida

Contributed by: A Co-Production of the Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum and KCET

Interviewee Bio

Kay Sekimachi, born in 1926 in San Francisco, is an American fiber artist best known for her masterful, three-dimensional woven monofilament hangings as well as her intricate baskets and bowls. Born in San Francisco on September 30, 1926, Sekimachi was interned with her family at Tanforan Assembly Center in California and then the Topaz concentraton camp in Utah from 1942 to 1944. (June 2018)

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