Richmond BC, Canada #richmondartgallerybc
Nectarine River: Asian Pacific Children’s fable
“A new born baby’s eyes open to a crowd of relatives. The mother’s side is Japanese and the father’s Jewish. It makes no difference to baby but everyone wants to know how this mixed-race offspring will fit into the world. The cousins sing to spur baby on against a grown-up world of racial naming.”
Nectarine River is a story and an artwork, a modern day myth. A hapa (mixed race) child is the main character who surfs on a tidal wave up Nectarine River toward demon mountain.
This is a California surfer version of the famous Japanese peachboy epic, Momotaro. The story holds up a contemporary mirror for the mixed children and families of our widely intermarrying society. In North America it is a wave of the future. Look out!
Michael Tora Speier is a painter of westcoast Canadian, Japanese and Jewish-American,and Eurasian roots. His artistic productions include serigraphy, photography, stagecraft, scenic design, illuminated papercraft, aquarelle, nihonga, and oil painting.
