Artist and gallery owner Arthur Towata (B.S. ’62, Education; M.F.A. ’71, Art and Design) has turned his painful and transformative childhood experiences at a Japanese internment camp into expressive art in his traveling exhibit, “Echoes from Manzanar:  If Walls Could Talk.”

Towata’s father, Itsuji, was taken from Los Angeles to California’s Manzanar War Relocation Center, where he ultimately lost his life, in the first sweep on December 11, 1941.  Towata and his mother, Asayo, and brother, George, were transported to Manzanar on June 1, 1942.  Towata was nine years old.

“My family’s life was forever changed during this period, as were the lives of thousands of others,” Towata said.  “This body of work comprises only a whisper of thought on one topic of my life.”

Towata’s mother did the best to protect her sons from the dark reality of the camp.  “I was instructed to entertain myself through the exploration of our new environment,” Towata recalled.  “She did not entrap me within an emotionally negative circumstance, but invited me to glean from it another opportunity to learn.”

The foreign environment of the California High Sierra landscape became the grounds in which Towata gathered creatures, rocks and objects to create imaginative games, met other camp members and became part of a temporary community.

In January 2006, Towata revisited Manzanar.  “Only upon entering that part of the country did I realize the impact that the landscape has played upon my artistic sensibilities,” he said.  He placed his small ceramic vessel into the natural rock formations of the mountainous historic site, and it became part of the land.

“The texture, color and form fit perfectly as one missing puzzle piece long searched for,” Towata said.  “Therefore, this body of work is yet another loop of the same thread running through my creative work.”

The “Echoes from Manzanar” exhibit includes about 25 ceramic vessels. Here, his small ceramic vessel seems to blend easily with the natural rock formations of the mountainous historic site.

Towata’s works in the “Echoes from Manzanar” exhibit include about 25 ceramic vessels and 18 large acrylic paintings on canvas.  The paintings feature blackened backdrops that reflect the rows of black tar-paper buildings Towata confronted at the desolate, disorienting camp.

The exhibit originally opened at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Ill., and ran from March 2 to April 15.  The artist is hopeful that the show, which is presented as a tribute not only to his family’s experience in the camp but to all those whose lives were forever changed during the internment years, will travel to both the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles and the museum at Manzanar.  Towata is also pursuing shows in 15 states in which internment camps were located.

The Regional Arts Commission has committed to sponsor the show in St. Louis in 2008.  The exhibit will likely be held in August to coincide with the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

Before entering SIUE, Towata served in the United States Air Force and was stationed at the Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County, Ill.  He has fond memories of his academic experience at SIUE, particularly his relationship with a former art instructor, Jack Cannon, who would become one of Towata’s greatest friends and mentors.

Early in his career, Towata served as chair of the department of art at Monticello College in Godfrey, Ill.  He has conducted workshops throughout the Midwest and served as juror to many art competitions.  Towata further served as one of the four committee members who created Craft Alliance, a nonprofit established to provide the St. Louis community with art education through exhibitions, sales and instruction, in 1964.

That same year, Towata opened the Towata Fine Art Gallery in Alton, Ill., to showcase his work.  In addition to pottery and painting, he is proficient in printmaking and sculpture.  Towata’s overall body of work, like the “Echoes from Manzanar” exhibit, reflects traces of his Japanese heritage.

Towata with Kate Morgan (M.F.A. ’03).  Morgan's sculptural and organic work is on exhibit with Towata's.

Today, the gallery also exhibits the work of Towata’s partner, SIUE alumna Kate Morgan (M.F.A. ’03).  Morgan is a ceramic artist whose work is sculptural and organic.  She primarily creates delicate and fragile forms that reflect her love for nature.  Her current work, for instance, is based on a figurative character, Birdgirl, who is an innocent child surrounded by birds.

“The birds symbolize freedom from my fears,” Morgan said.  “My fears of exposing my work for criticism and public viewing, and releasing my fears brought as baggage from childhood.”

In addition to ceramics, Morgan works in various media including photography, collage and watercolor.  She currently serves as an instructor of ceramics at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Ill., where she also teaches art and music to adults with disabilities through a grant-funded program, College for Life.

During her summer break, Morgan leads small groups to Italy to explore the culture, art and landscape of the Tuscan region.  This year, she is hosting two tours, which will include trips to Rome, Florence and Montisi, a village that sits amid vineyards and olive farms dating back to 1638, among other destinations.

“I am addicted to Italy,” Morgan said.  “My great grandmother was Italian, and my DNA resonates when I am ‘back home’ in Italy.”  Morgan’s whimsical functional work is based on her exploration of Italian majolica painting.  She said she has perfected a method of working and glazing that is colorful and pictorial and reflects the tradition of the design style.

Morgan and Towata’s work can be viewed, along with the work of other selected Midwestern artists, at the Towata Fine Art Gallery by appointment only.  The gallery is located at 206 W. Third St. in Alton, Ill., and can be reached at (618) 462-5928.  Morgan’s work will also be featured in an exhibit opening July 15 at the Main Street Gallery in Edwardsville, Ill.

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