Tony Sheets 3

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John A. (Tony) Sheets
Issei No Yme
1986

Project Area: Little Tokyo
Project: Tokyo Villas
Project Location: 222 S. Central Avenue
Project Type: Developer

Description:

Standing in a small landscaped area in front of Tokyo Villas is "Issei No Yme" by Tony Sheets. The sculpture stands on a slate and tile base and is made up of a thick 9'h x 4'd bronze columnar sculpture reminiscent of a ship's smokestack. The columns feature full-length relief figures of Japanese immigrant families dressed in traditional Japanese and Western dress and leaning against a ship's railing while peering out at the horizon. On one side of the sculpture is a poem written in Japanese. The English translation of the poem is:

Our forefathers,
the Issei
Leaving their Motherland to America
Full of hope in their future

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Artist Profile

Tony Sheets is a designer, painter, sculptor, and educator who has been creating original works since 1972. After two years of studying landscape architecture at Cal Poly, Pomona, the artist left college for a full-time position to work with professional artists, architects, and Walt Disney. This position would last twelve years. Sheets works with a variety of materials such as cast and fabricated metals, cast stone, poured concrete, applied sand and cement, and resins. Lately, the artist has preferred to work with copper repoussé, pounding copper into relief imagery. The artist lives and works in Murphy, Oregon.