The Art of Living – Woodwork

Woodworking was likely the first form of art practiced at Rohwer and Jerome. Because the families could bring into the camp only what they could personally carry, they had no furniture in their barracks other than the cots provided by the War Relocation Authority. Scrap lumber left over from the hastily constructed barracks and slats from the wooden crates used to bring in food quickly became makeshift furniture built with homemade tools and discarded nails from the camps’ construction.

Over time, woodworking turned more toward decorative arts as the artists made bas relief carvings from wood planks and crate slats or created carved sculptures from pieces of wood found in the forests that surrounded the camps.