Art Nomura
What's New?
2022 and 2023 have been very busy. In 2022, the non-fiction biographical book, Mizuko: True Spirit was released. 80 people attendented the inaugural book reading and signing of the book at Culver City's The Village Well. Jenni Kuida expertly managed the reading of excerpts from the book by Art and the Q and A session that followed. The limited number of the book rapidly sold out and many of those purchasing were asked to pick up their ordered books at a later date. On May 31st , a second reading accompanied by a select slide show of Mizuko's life was held in the community room of the Julian Dixon Library in Culver City. Another presentation is tentatively scheduled for the fall of this year at the Mar Vista Los Angeles City Library.
In May, 2023, Art premiered the video series Carfree, a 12 part series of short videos (3 - 5 min.) celebrating the joys and challenges of being car free in car-crazy Southern California. The series was released on Monday and Thursday mornings throughout May (National Bike Month) and concluded in the first week of June 2023. Five of the the videos will be reprised along with Q and A's of the interviewees (live) in August 2023. Please contact the Julian Dixon library to reserve a seat. The series will continue online until the end of the year on Vimeo.com if you wish to view it there.
In the month of April, 2020 several more dance videos have been added to the site. All contain the collaborated work of Art Nomura and Mary Daval in the mid-1980's. Please go to Showreel>Experimental to view 'Depot Duet' performed by Mary Daval at the old Union Station in Los Angeles, and two environmentally themed efforts: 'Seascape', and 'Windfall'. The latter two are especially apropos for the strange place we find ourselves in this year.
From April 1, 2020. Hunkered down at home surrounded by covid19. I have decided to post complete versions of my past video efforts. Today you will find 'las palmas de los angeles' by clicking on 'Showreel>Documentary'. This video was put together in 1989 before HD video existed. Ergo it feels ancient, but the info and creative effort is still to be witnessed. Have a look and let me know what you think about it in the 'Contact' section. Please explore the rest of the site!
From April 1, 2020. For those of you who have wandered to this site without going to the Facebook page for 'Standing Tall: The Extra/Ordinary Life of Mizuko Takahashi Nomura' a special treat has been added to the 'Blog' above. The entire narrative of my interactive book has been added to this website! I have realized that many potential readers of the biographical life of my paternal grandmother do not have the requisite Mac hardware to access the interactive version. So I posted the written part of the book in the Blog. If you do want to access the uniqueness of the interactive version please go to: https://www.facebook.com/StandingTallTheExtraOrdinaryLife/
for info on how to order it, special previews and reviews. This is not a joke!
From December 21, 2018 - March 3, 2019 two of the dance videos created by choreographer/dancer Mary Daval and artist/videomaker Art Nomura are being screened at the SPACE gallery in Pittsburgh, PA. Although the videos, Depot Duet and Seascape were produced in the early 80's, they remain fresh and topically relevant. Check out the opening reception on January 25th if you are in the area!
Standing Tall: The Extra/Ordinary Life of Mizuko Takahashi Nomura, an ebook for iPad, iPhone, and Mac Computers. Buy it here.
Three years in the making, Standing Tall.... is an interactive ebook for Apple iPhone, iPad and Mac computers running Mavericks or Yosemite OS.
Created with Apple’s iBooks Author software, this ebook is about the author’s paternal grandmother and features a dramatic narrative inter-twined with interactive graphics, movies, photo galleries, games, Keynote animations, and more.
The details of Mizuko’s extra/ordinary life in Japan and America offer the reader a personal look into the trials and tribulations of immigrant life. A special aspect of the ebook is an accounting of the matriarch’s life in Manzanar War Relocation Center in east-central California for three years beginning in 1942.
Standing Tall: ... is required reading for anyone who wants a grounding and/or fuller understanding of the history of minority women, Japanese immigrants, and the incarceration of Japanese from the west coast of America during World War II. Readers interested in family genealogy will be inspired by the multi-generational family depicted in this story.
In addition to the story narrative, the ebook features over 250 historical photos ranging from government-sponsored documentation of concentration camp life to dozens of rare family photos dating back to 1870. Specially selected links to sites and documents about the Japanese American experience expand the scope of the ebook to the wide world of the internet. Videos with family members dating back to 1987 augment the narrative with first-person recollections.