Weekly Arrow's Progress 2024.02.23: An Inspiring Story
Inter-Ethnic Community in Seattle's International District
Yes, I’m giving these updates a name. :)
I’m wondering if you, dear reader, would prefer less frequent updates or if it doesn’t matter? I thought I’d be writing weekly with only occasional additional posts, but it turns out I have a lot to share in thoughts and art. So, I could just combine things into one, bigger, weekly post instead, plus occasional separate ones (like the life drawing post, some things may make sense as stand-alone posts). This would reduce emails coming to you (if you’re getting them via email instead of the app).
Any preferences? You can let me know in this one-question survey:
In this week’s Arrow’s Progress:
An Inspiring Story of Inter-Ethnic Community in Seattle’s International District
Graphic Short Story
Art
An Inspiring Story of Inter-Ethnic Community in Seattle’s International District
On Monday, which was the anniversary of the Executive Order that resulted in incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, I went to a fantastic artist talk hosted by Short Run Comix at the Fantagraphics store in Georgetown. Three artists were there to talk about their graphic novels about the Japanese-American incarceration:
Searching For Saito, Miya Sukune
We Are Not Strangers, Josh Tuininga
We Hereby Refuse, Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, Matt Sasaki (Illustrator), Ross Ishikawa (Illustrator)
All three shared interesting stories of their research and subjects, but I just want to highlight We Are Not Strangers since it was uplifting and I learned something new about Seattle’s International District.
Tuininga was inspired to research and tell his story because his grandfather told him about how their family lived in the C/ID and helped Japanese-American families during WWII. Turns out there were a lot of Jewish families living in the C/ID, alongside Japanese-, Filipino-, and Chinese-American families at that time! And they had a strong inter-ethnic community that helped each other out.
I appreciated that Tuininga shared that although he thought he was getting into a savior story, it was really a collaborative dynamic where they all discussed what they were going to do. And the conundrum he highlighted that Jewish families faced was poignant, between appreciating the U.S.’s role helping European Jewish people while at the same time being horrified that the U.S. was incarcerating Japanese-Americans at home.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to eventually getting to the front of the long waitlist for the book at the library.
Graphic Short Story
Alright, I’m coalescing on the look of the art. Enough that it’s time to move on to page layouts and then executing final pages. At which point, I’ll start sharing them here as I complete them!
Art
Had a great life drawing session this past weekend. What’s great is that I’m getting better at raising my head out of the flow to think more holistically about the drawings while I’m working. I have a tendency to get absorbed in the details, and end up spending time on things that don’t contribute to the piece as a whole or even detract from it.
If you missed my post sharing the artwork, you can check it out here (note: nude model).
And here’s a sketch I finished while waiting at a laundromat, just as the car drove away:
Till next time-
