Thomas Yamamoto, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetThomas Yamamoto
American artist
Date of Birth: 20-Aug-1917
Date of Death: 19-Dec-2004
Profession: artist
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Leo 
About Thomas Yamamoto
- Thomas Yamamoto (August 20, 1917 – December 19, 2004) was an American artist. Born in Japantown, San Francisco to two Issei, a tailor and a midwife from adjoining villages in Oita and Fukuoka Prefectures in Kyushu, Japan.
- Both of Yamamoto's parents were of Bushi heritage.
- Yamamoto was an Eagle Scout in troop 12 and attended Lowell High School, graduating in 1935.
- After starting in aeronautical engineering, Yamamoto switched to art at UC Berkeley graduating with a Masters of Art in 1941.
- This was before the advent of the Masters of Fine Art.
- His instructors included John Haley and Erle Loran, who worked with Hans Hofmann.
- To some degree they influenced his future work.
- He was Phi Beta Kappa. In the 1930s, Yamamoto was active in the art scene of the San Francisco Bay area until being incarcerated in May 1942.
- He was interned first at the Assembly Center in San Francisco, and was later moved to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah.
- While there, he contributed work to the camp magazine, Trek, along with Miné Okubo.
- He was released early due to the sponsorship of Takashi Ohta, an artist who housed him in his West Village home in New York City.
- While in New York City, Yamamoto and other Japanese American artists formed the anti-fascist group Japanese Americans for Democracy. In 1946, Yamamoto returned to Berkeley, where he met Jane Emily Pitkin, daughter of nationally recognized educator Royce S.
- Pitkin who brought Goddard College to prominence as an innovative school in alternative education.
- Because of California's anti-miscegenation laws, Yamamoto and Pitkin were married in New York City.
- They then traveled extensively, living at times in different countries, and Yamamoto continually practiced his art.
- From 1960 to 1971 they lived in Marshfield, Vermont where they raised three children.
- While in Marshfield, Thomas taught art at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont.
- In 1971 they moved to Alicante, Spain where Yamamoto painted oils.
- He bought a litho press and did aqua tint and etchings.
- In 1975 he returned to Vermont briefly then Yamamoto and his wife moved to, Tutuila, American Samoa where he taught at the Community College of American Samoa.
- After two years there they moved to Honolulu where they spent 22 years.
- Unable to get a job teaching he continued painting oils.
- Honolulu, Hawaii before returning to central Vermont shortly before Yamamoto's death in 2004. In 1976, in honor of the American Bicentennial, the town of Marshfield commissioned Yamamoto to do a series of paintings of historical Marshfield.
- These paintings are still (in 2010) on view in the Jaquith Public Library in the Old Schoolhouse Commons in Marshfield, Vermont.
Read more at Wikipedia