Making Our Mattress

Maker Henry Sugimoto (American, 1900 - 1990)

Date1970-1980

Mediumoil, canvas

DimensionsH: 32 in, W: 23 in, Frame: 33 x 24 in

ClassificationsFine Arts

Credit LineGift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum

Object number92.97.2

DescriptionFramed and stretched. Wood frame is painted gold, wood showing through in streaks.;Image of families stuffing their mattresses with hay. In the foreground, before a large pile of hay on the left, a man in denim overalls, blue shirt, red handkerchief in back pocket, straw hat, with his back to the viewer, and a woman in green and blue dress, white apron, and straw hat stuff a mattress with the help of a boy in blue shorts and black and grey striped shirt. Behind them, to the right, a woman dressed in a blue and white dress, with white scarf and a boy in brown shorts and black and white striped shirt stuff a mattress. Behind the haystack a man in blue jeans, light blue shirt walks away with a stuffed mattress over his right shoulder, as a woman in blue and white dress with a yellow scarf approaches the hay from the right carrying a mattress and holding the hand of a young girl in a yellow and white dress. Further back, walking out of the image on the left, a man in blue jeans, light blue shirt, and straw hat, woman in light blue and white dress carry a mattress between them. In the background stand two barracks in front of a barbed wire fence and trees.