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A Reflection Of Roger Shimomura's Art?

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Art is often a reflection of (the artist’s) true self, a personal account of experience, interest and compelling emotion. Roger Shimomura is an artist who is not only influenced by his own personal experiences but the struggles many other Asian-Americans experience as well. His art deals with socio-political issues within American history, issues of discrimination, the emergence of popular art, and that of the nation’s inbred racism. Shimomura presents this satirical works through complex and iconic juxtaposing imagery, reflecting general Japanese and American cultural values with the intent of revealing Japanese-American sensibilities and societal relations, as seen through iconic works: The “Minidoka” series, “442”, “No-No Boy”, and “The Great American Muse”. As a Nisei (second generation Japanese American), Roger was born in Seattle, Washington in 1939, and when at three years of age, America began to undergo the devastating aftermath of Pearl Harbor his family was also “relocated” to Camp Minidoka in Southern Idaho. Evidential trauma from this experience can be revealed in Shimomura’s “Minidoka On My Mind” series of works, his most earnest and heartfelt line of works. These works served as a personal memoir or statement that allowed Shimomura to account early childhood experiences involving the immoral incarceration of those with Japanese heritage during WWII, with Executive Order #9066. After the act was signed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, over 110,000 (over

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