I'm 1/2 japanese and being half has (I think) affected me more than I might have thought when I was younger. The kimono represents my childhod, my parents who came tother in an interracial marriage. It's so odd to me to think how difficult that was for my mother who came here when she was 27, with a 10 month old in 1958. She was shunned by my fathers family (so was he btw). It must have been hard to leave her family. She never went back to Japan and never had any contact with her family after she came to the U.S.
We ate meals that were a mixture of japanese and meat and potqtos that my swede dad grew up on in MN. Every meal we had both potatos and rice with our meat and veggies. Soy sauce was always on the table next to the salt and pepper. Most of my friends (all white) thought we were sort of weird.
The kimono is my childhood, my mom wold dress my sister and I up in little kimonos complete with an ornate obi. Ours were red but I made this one blue, a sort of loose waterfall look signifying the tears my parents shed being away from family and the feelings about the japanese at the time. There is also amythyst studded in there signifying my aquarian birth sign.
The kimino is on the left signifying I've left my childhood behind.
On the right is a compactd version of my story. Turquoise is an alternate for aquarian, febuary people. I used african turquoise. The bottom one is me, at the beginning, not embellished just sort of from the earth. The second set is my marriage with my husband. The gold peyote is in an infinity shape showing our vow of marriage. So far, so good we've been together for 29 yrs. The one above that is the birth of my son. His favorite colors make up the peote bezel. My daugher is next and her favorite colors are her bezel. The top on is my life so far. Purple for royally perfect (even with everything we've all gone thru), it's flashing colors are the flashes of brilliance in my life that each friend & family member brings to me and mine.
My initials are hidden in the form of the piece. This piece has deep meaning for me.
