My mother was incarcerated at Topaz, the WWII Japanese American internment camp in Utah, formally an ancient seabed. The internees collected shells and made pins, handicrafts known as Gaman (which means persevere). I grew up admiring them in my mother’s jewelry box.

Each hand-pinched shell represents a person (“resident”) of the camp. 11,000 were processed through Topaz.

This installation first included 3500 shells and has since grown to over 10,000, each shell as a little beacon of hope. They remain as contemporary fossils, storytellers and keepers of this injustice in history. 

Shikata gai nai / It cannot be helped. I am coalescing with makers who created beauty behind barbed wire.

Porcelain clay, acrylic hangers, 2023 - 2026