Fortune

Here is the beginnings of my third tapestry. It is inspired by the personal family history, San Francisco history and the grounds of the museum. A large abstracted element of the curl in this park bench in front of the museum anchors the composition. It is covered in an old family rice bag. Other graphic elements are two large flower hats inspired by the bridal butterfly tie obi in this family photo below. I will also be dangling fortune cookie message strips and recreations of Japanese internment id tags. The fortune cookie was introduced to the U.S. by Makoto Hagiwara, a gardener of the Japanese Tea Garden next to the de Young Museum. He and his family were sent to internment camps during WWII along with the other Japanese American families running the fortune cookie businesses of San Francisco. On the interment tags I will be placing their family names as well as the names of personal family friends interned from Hawaii.

On the fortune cookie strips I will have two messages:

All Japanese persons, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above designated area by 12:00 o'clock noon Tuesday, April 7, 1942.

Pack your bags. You will be going on an adventure.

The obi and barbed wire elements on the background grid both allude to different forces binding the internment community together: family and fences.

Bench in front of de Young Museum



















Family photo




















Digital sketch below
























In progress image.




























































I may add more to the flower hats later. I will add the stamen elements and small shoyu bottle cap to the tips.
Brownish red sheer organza is overlayed on top of the rice bag layer. Next I have started to create the flower elements.

















































Here is the piece with an old rice bag covering the waste canvas. This Botan rice bag is from my grandma's collection in Hawaii. These rice bags were used to make underwear, aprons and quilt backings.