Artist Statement: This quilt is third in a series of quilts and poetry inspired by the stories of people who were sent to the Japanese American internment camps during World War II. This third quilt was directly inspired by a photo of a young girl next to a soldier standing in front of a barrack at an internment camp. It was also inspired by two of the Dear Miss Breed letters sent by young girls while at the Santa Anita assembly center. Both girls requested fabric and supplies to make clothing, one a dress and another a blouse. I used a chalk drawing of one of my blouses as a basis for the thread painting work that was done free hand with 10 different types of thread to get the various kinds of shading. The poem by Margaret Chula that matches this piece is about a young girl who lost her brother to the war while she was behind barbed wire in an internment camp….She wore her lace blouse when he left for war and to receive his medal after he died...

Dimensions: 10" wide x 8" high