Shizue Seigel is a third-generation Japanese American writer, visual artist and community activist who explores complex intersections of history, culture and spirituality through prose, poetry and visual art. shizueseigel.com. She is the founder/director of Write Now! SF Bay, which supports San Francisco Bay Area writers and artists of color through workshops, events and anthologies. More information at WriteNowSF.com.
Her work is informed by seven decades of experiential explorations across age, class, continents and cultures. She was born in 1946, just after her family's release from World War II incarceration. She grew up as an Army brat in segregated Baltimore, Occupied Japan, California farm labor camps and skid-row Stockton, before finding home in San Francisco. She's a college dropout who learns by doing—from the Haight-Ashbury to Indian ashrams, from the corporate advertising to HIV prevention to San Francisco’s vibrant activist arts community.
Shizue Seigel
Artwork Gallery
1. “Burden of Imagination,” oil, 24 x 24 in, 1980
Reflection question: How is the blank canvas both a gift and a responsibility? How might being a member of a marginalized group impact an artist's work.
2. “The Floating World,” oil, 44 x 36 in, 1981
Artist statement: Self-portrait as a child dressed for a special Buddhist ceremony. The golden chigo crown feels heavy with responsibility: “I am a link in Amida’s golden chain of love that stretches around the world. I will keep my link bright and strong....” The white ground symbolizing formless unity gives birth to the material world, where loss commingles with beauty, gratitude with obligation. My grandparents recede into traditional patterns and Japanese kanji characters I cannot read. Woven throughout are red and green—the colors of stop-go, right-wrong—the conundrums of duality.
3. "Line of Succession," acrylic , 36 x 24 in, 1982
Reflection question: How does this painting relate to "The Floating World"? What anchors yourdientity? What are you passing on to your chidlren?
4. "Jiichan (camp)," photo collage, 11 x 17in, 2007
Jiichan. Grandpa. You made a life out of leavings. Mottainai. Waste not want not. Find a use for every bone and rag.
You did not have the tongue to tell me; I lacked the ears to hear.
Now I puzzle out the story from what you left behind: Rocks, suitcases, and homemade jam in mayonnaise jars.
You only had to say my name to let me know that I was loved.
On frosty mornings when our breath hung in the air and frost crunched underfoot—
We were two exiles lacking a common tongue, savoring in silence
The coil of worm tracks in the mud and the call of birds whose names we did not know....
The leather scraps were still in the garage when you died.
Next to wooden trays carved to fit stones that reminded you of the mountains of home.
Mottainai! Waste nothing. Hone every experience to its essential lesson.
Excerpt from poem “You Never Told Me.” © 2009 Shizue Seigel
Reflection question: What is the tone of the image and the poem. Compare with the image and the essay "Zembu Arigatai (Grateful for Everything)" https://discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2025/10/19/zembu-arigatai/. What are some some legacies from your grandfather?
5. "Classified," photocollage, 24 x24 in, 2017.
Reflection question: The five red portraits of the artist's father are backdropped by the group photos where he was one of many. In what ways are we categorized by society—graded, edited, classified. What happens when we are classified by appearance? when we give the "wrong" answer? What is the significance of the guard tower and Questions No. 27 and 28 in Japanese Americank history? Are there parallels in your own family history?
6. "Remember," photocollage, 17 x 11 in, 2012.
Reflection questions: What is the significance of the mushroom cloud? View Valerie Otani's installation "Voices of Remembrance" on Portland's subway line. Compare the impact of public art installations with small works like this photocollage. How much public art in the US expands the American story? How much perpetuates oppression?
7. "A-sim-U-lation," mixed media with found objects, 36 x 36 in, 2008.
Reflection question: What does this piece say about assimilation creating a simulation rather than authencity? What happens psychologically when young adults grow up without cultural identity or histroical context.
8. "Imperatrix Mundi," acrylic, 52 x28 in, 2010, after "Napoleon on His Imperial Throne" by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
Reflection question: "Imperatrix Mundi" is Latin or Empress of the World." How what does this homage to Japanese American grandmothers say about the power or ordinary people?
9. "My Little Princess," photocollage, 16 x 20 in, 2008
10. "Left Behind," photocollage, 16 x 20 in, 2008.
Reflection questions: What are ways that immigrants' pursuit of the American Dream can impact their children? Who or what is left behind?
nice girls
I was raised to be
the old-fashioned girl,
the one that says
“Is this how you s’posed to do it?”
“I’m not sure I know how...”
“You go first;
I’d do it wrong anyway.”
Nice girls are agreeable.
Nice girls are patient.
We don’t make mistakes
or act without permission.
Nobody taught us to love
the terrible freedom
the wild solitude.
We did everything they told us to.
“Be patient, ” they said.
“Compromise, co-operate, wait your turn.”
Hesitant and yielding,
gentle flutter of
downcast eyes,
inside, resentment builds,
drop by bitter drop.
Inside
the wild bitch screams.
ethnic adjustments
Get this.
I’m only going to say it once:
I am not, nor have I ever been
a Cherry Blossom queen.
I did not, nor do I plan to
bomb Pearl Harbor.
I do not, nor will I ever
sling a camera round my neck.
No, I won’t walk on your back
or serve green tea,
Heck, I don’t even like rice.
Look closely.
I’m not yellow inside or out.
My eyes don’t slant.
And in case you haven’t noticed,
I’m not polite.
So let’s go for a walk.
But don’t expect me
ten steps behind.
In my world, men follow me.
Reflection questions: The author grew up in the 1950s. How have expectations for girls evolved over time? If you identify as female, what was expected of you as a child and how did you establish your own identity? If you identify as male, how has your perception of girls and women evolved over time? If you are gender fluid, how have societal expectations impacted your identity.
Most of the artwork published in Distillations: Meditations of the Japanese American Experience, John F. Kennedy University/Asian American Artists Association, 2010, or Uncommon Ground: BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism, Pease Press, 2022, where the poems were also published.