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EDITOR IN CHIEF
Sarah Kickler
EDITORIAL EDITOR
Mike Schmierbach
NIGHT EDITOR
Nicole Krueger
University Professor Frank Okada has connection that run
throughout the Northwest art community
^ | ^here are those who qui
I eriy go about their busi
® ness writing or painting
M or drawing or garden -
ins. They create, solitarily. The
act of an audience is not why
they do it — neither is money
nor^ven the weather. Above alL
it is simply what they do be
cause they have to. This is the
kind of human endeavor I most
admire, which requires the per
sistent faith I most respect
The Northwest has been
blessed with such singular indi
viduals. who are often known to
one another but not always to
the rest of us. I have to say that
one of my primary motives for
wanting to be an Emerald
columnist was because it provid
OPINION
Hannah
Dillon
ec a reason tor
roe to talk with
such individu
als. And so for
my last piece. I
seized the op
portunity to
interview
semi-retired
University fine
arts Professor
Frank. Okada.
whom I was aware of long oefore
moving to Eugene. He was men
tor to one of the rising stars of
Northwest painters and my fa
vorite. Sydni Sterling, as well as
to other prominent local artists
such as Allen Cox.
"Painting is what I da” Oka
da. who gets up around four in
the morning and goes to his stu
dio to pain! seven days a week,
says softly. He came to the Uni
versity in 1969 at the age of 38
and was the only Asian Ameri
can acuity member unfr about
15 years ago.
'What kind of an ego did you
have to have to paint when there
was no market for it?" Okada
muses when rensemhs-.rg Seat
tle. the place where he grew up.
and :3 only gallery space in the
40s and '50s. The gallery was a
' Renaissance ~ cubbyhole next
to a cashier selling Frango Mints
in the venerable Frederick and
Nelson's department store on
Fifth Avenue. Frederick's was
the cultural mecca of downtown
Seattle then. Where else could
one go to buy such a local delica
cy and after counurg out the
change far it. shift slightly to see
a Mark Tobey exhibit?
Okada has been to Fhris on a
Guggenhetm Fellowship and to
Kyoto on a Fulhright While on a
Whitney grant in New York Ctv.
he attended 'evening seminars’
at the Cedar Bar There, he was
entertainingly educated by the
leading abstract expressionists
of the time — Franz Kline. Mark
Rothko, the de Koonings and
Milton Resnick. to name a few.
Tbe Cedar Bar was to artists in
New York Gty in the ‘50s what
the Deux Magots was to expatri
ate writers in Paris in the 20s
and 30s
Okada returned to Seattle and
created a studio, which he
shared mi and off with fellow ab
stract expressionist William Ivey
and a grand piano. The studio
became a locus of the art and lit
erary scene in the city. Luminar
ies such as painters Carl Morris
and Mark Tobey and poets
Theodore Roethke. Richard
Hugo and Carolyn Kizer were
part of Okada's expansive circle.
Okada did not give me this
juky piece of history while we
were having coffee. Instead. I
talked with artist Alien Cox.
who was glad to offer a few
nuggets. Cox said that Okada's
artistic Lineage is in direct line
with the origins! abstract
painters of die Northwest — To
bey. Morris and Ivey. Okada
came in under their wings. He
also added that he has never
heard anything less than ^co
lades about Okada as a paints'
and as a person. After that I
went to my favorite library a:
Lawrence Hall and found books
on Okada’s old buddies. Ivey
and Morris, but to my surprise
there was not a monograph on
Okada as of vet.
1 wondered it it would enter
our conversation, and it did. A
little bit here and there, again
and then again The Okada fami
ly was interned in a camp in Ida
ho during the war. Oka-da was
"tossed beck out of prison''
when he was 13. The family re
turned to ‘Japantmra' in Seattle
and lived in a hotel on skid row.
African American families Had
moved into the neighborhood
while the Tapanese Americans
were ‘away." Okada was ex
posed to jazz then and has been
listening to it nonstop ever since:
‘1 car, listen to Count Basie's
1937 rendition of "Taxi Dancing’
all day. over and over. I love its
clarity and lyrical qualitv. It’s
Mcszardan. I have about 1,500
CDs and Listen mostly to jazz,
acoustic and classical solos
while I paint."
Okada's older brother John,
who died at 48. wrote a nerve!
called "No-No Boy* in 1930.
which has become a must-reed
Sot American Studies. A few
years ago. the University of
Washington Press received a siz
able endowment tor a new senes
that fecuses on Asian .American
studies. It has been reprinting a
number of ‘tbraotten’ books by
Asuan American writers. Tohn
Okada s "No-No Boy’ was ra-e if
the 5rst
University Professor William
Rossi is teaching 'No-No Boy” in
his American novel class He
says it is the most interesting
Asian American novel of its time
because not only does it provide
students with a regional quality
and historical information on
the relocation and internment
camps, but Okada had to negoti
ate between two audiences —
the .Asian .American one and that
of the dominant culture at a time
when the latter was protesting
the existence of the former.
Rossi goes on to say that John
Okada acknowledges the outra
geous act of the camps and the
ruptured experience of the
Japanese .Americans as he at
tempts to reintegrate the no-no
boys — those who resisted the
draft while interned — and the
yes-yes boys who didn’t into an
American life that holds out a
promise of what it purports to
be. could be and thinks itself is
at the same time as the reality of
specific incidents of racial ha
tred continued to transpire.
'Snow Falling on Cedars.” by
David Guterson. has recently re
ceived acclamation, awards and
a burgeoning audience. He used
the island on which I grew up as
his context for “the memory of
what happened to its 'the is
land’s; Japanese residents dur
ing World War II. when an entire
community was sent into exile
while its neighbors watched."
My mother was in high school
then and down at the dock con
fused and crying while watching
her friends being taken away on
boats. She doesn’t remember it
happening the way Guterson de
picts it. “but then he wasn't
there.* Anyway. I am in the mid
dle of reading “No-No Boy. * It is
still raw and real and extremely
rich. In his short life. John Okada
was able to give flesh, bone and
blood to what his brother briefiy
alludes to a century !atpr
while sitting across the table
from an admiring stranger a: The
Hearth.
Frank Qkada says. 'Painting
is about being moved, not so
much something to be under
stood As a rain ter. I initiate toe
visual dialogue and that's
enough " He does it every day
in his studio as he Has been do
ing it for years — creating a tete
a-tete with color. line, shape
and texture while Count Basie
plays — a quintessential Ameri
can image.
Hmmab Dtikrt s a Gjiumrjsjcr
foe Emerald. Her xcm jccears «
ji-e"*zg Fridays. Her neits do n-jt
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•seMpoper
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Coffee choices
The great thing about living
in the United States is that we
can all choose what job to
work, what cereal to eat and
what coffee we want to drink.
People living in the Northwest
and students at the University
enjoy one of the largest selec
tions of coffee and beer in the
world. Regardless of whether
the EMU chooses to serve Seat
tle's Best or Yuban, students
still have a choice to buy it.
There are a dozen different
vendors of coffee on 13th Av
enue, a five-minute walk from
the EMU. I work for Starbucks
Coffee Co., and we have the
same customers every day, as
do the rest of the other coffee
vendors, I assume. If I go into a
bar and they don’t serve the
beer I like, I go to the one down
the street. It’s about brand loy
alty.
So no matter what the EMU
serves for coffee, our customers
are still going to buy Starbucks,
because that’s what they like to
drink. If students don’t like the
coffee that the EMU chooses to
serve, they won’t drink it, and
it won’t sell. It is not as if the
EMU is isolated, and its food
vendors Eire subject to the same
business principles as any oth
er business.
It is not fair to blame Seattle
Coffee Co. for having a pol
ished presentation and selling
the board on its coffee. The
point is that whatever the EMU
chooses to serve, I will still
drink Starbucks Coffee, and my
friend will still drink Coffee
People. We are creatures of
habit and what makes the Unit
ed States a great country is that
we have the right to exercise
that choice.
Business is about survival of
the fittest, and if that means
having a marketing exec with a
Harvard degree to do your sales
pitch, then the rest of the coffee
companies better start saving
their money.
Kit Blair
Business
HIV misinformation
Let’s make this as short as
possible. 1 am an HIV counselor
at White Bird Clinic and am
writing to correct egregious
misinformation printed in a
column bv Jonas Allen (ODE,
May 29),
Mv coworker, Gina Tor
mohlen. was badly misquoted
as saying that “we're used to
false positives" on HIV tests.
This is wrong. Actually, false
positives on HIV tests are virtu
ally impossible through the
testing process used by White
Bird and the Oregon Health 1)1
vision. There is at least a throe
step confirmation of positives
that occurs on the same blood
sample before clients even re
ceive their results. While we
believe the paper printed a
large error and grave misinfor
mation. the Emerald does not
see fit to retract it. The editorial
editor feels that the article does
not detract from confidence in
the testing. To the contrary. Af
ter seeing several clients today
at HIV testing who were con
cerned about false positives as
a result of the editorial, I can as
sure you that the misinforma
tion did affect people.
Even if people reading this
letter do not carry the frustra
tion that I do concerning the
Emerald’s lack of commitment
to correct information, please
take away one simple message:
HIV testing, as done in Oregon
and at White Bird, is very' reli
able and sound. Feel free to
come in for anonymous testing
and ask us about reliability if
you wish.
Heidi Schultz
HIV Counselor, White Bird
Medical Clinic
Editor’s note: Columnist
Allen insists that Tormohlen
was quoted accurately after a
review of his notes. While the
Emerald sympathizes with the
concerns of Schultz, we do not
feel the story implied that HIV
testing was unreliable, but
mther that procedures exist for
dealing with the possibility of
false positives that occur in
preliminary testing. The Emer
ald supports the HI\r testing
work done by White Bird and
gladly concurs with Schultz
that testing procedures are reli
able and that anyone con
cerned about HI\' and AIDS
should contact a member or
members of the medical com
munity' trained to perform both
testing and counsehng.
Support workers
All ASUO programs, such as
the Student Insurgent, as well
as state education facilities, are
funded by taxpayers. This
means that we all benefit from
the sweat and labor of the
working class. Opportunism
runs rampant in a society
whose economic system is
based on a divide between the
haves and the have-nots. How
ever, the left, being the champi
on of the working class, has a
special responsibility to focus
all of its resources toward the
goal of restructuring society so
that there is an equitable distri
bution of resources to all peo
ple and thus allowing humans
to labor creatively. Expropria
tion of working-class funding
(which Tristan Masat is ac
cused of doing) is not some
thing that a person truly con
cerned with the plight of the
working class would do. In
stead, these recent ev ents at the
Student Insurgent show exact
ly the typo of behavior that this
unfettered, turbo-charged, capi
talist society creates. It is now'
the responsibility of the Stu
dent Insurgent to begin again —
to leant from its mistakes. After
all, the workers have nothing to
lose but their chains.
Ann Strahm
Student Insurgent