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2026 BCA Virtual Art Exhibit
Welcome to our BCA Virtual Art Exhibit! This marks the 6th year of sharing artwork from our Sangha community and friends. Whether you are a first time visitor or a gallery regular, we are happy that you have joined us today. The exhibit continues to grow with participants and entries. Your presence, participation, and words allows for the growth and continuation of the BCA Virtual Art Exhibit. Please encourage others to visit and artists to join in. The exhibit will continue to grow and spread like all of Amida's teachings.
The committee is now referred to as BCArt. A new extension of our exhibit has been an in-person showing during the live BCA National Council meetings. Please look for this added dimension of our efforts to showcase the works of our talented Sangha to all. Thank you very much.
Rev. Dennis Fujimoto
Sangha Artists
Ellen Godbey Carson
" “Maligned and Confined: We Feel Your Tears”. This quilt is both protest and prayer. Created from antique kimono fabrics and overlaid with barbed wire, it speaks to the beauty, pain, and strength of a people unjustly imprisoned during WWII.
The quilt tells the story symbolically: cranes of good fortune standing solemnly, not soaring; koi swimming upstream with strength and hope, their path cut off; and waves that become rivers of tears. The dusty brown shibori recalls the grit and despair of camps built in remote wastelands. Barbed wire is a brutal reminder of the confinement that maligned so many honorable lives.
This is not just history. It is a warning. We must not repeat it. I stand in awe of the resilience of the Japanese American community and offer this piece in solidarity with all who fight for justice today.
For years I fought in courtrooms to seek redress for this injustice. Today, I use fabric and thread for the cause remains: justice, equality and truth. May this piece remind us of what was lost - and call us to protect what must never be lost again.
egcarson@icloud.com"
The quilt tells the story symbolically: cranes of good fortune standing solemnly, not soaring; koi swimming upstream with strength and hope, their path cut off; and waves that become rivers of tears. The dusty brown shibori recalls the grit and despair of camps built in remote wastelands. Barbed wire is a brutal reminder of the confinement that maligned so many honorable lives.
This is not just history. It is a warning. We must not repeat it. I stand in awe of the resilience of the Japanese American community and offer this piece in solidarity with all who fight for justice today.
For years I fought in courtrooms to seek redress for this injustice. Today, I use fabric and thread for the cause remains: justice, equality and truth. May this piece remind us of what was lost - and call us to protect what must never be lost again.
egcarson@icloud.com"
Ellen Godbey Carson
" “Shattered Lives and Dreams” reflects the anguish of Japanese Americans who built their lives in the United States with loyalty, industry, and hope, only to be branded as disloyal and imprisoned during World War II. Families lost their homes, farms, and livelihoods; their education and careers were destroyed. This was not an accident of war—it was the result of racism and hysteria.
The antique kimono with family crests speaks to generations of honor and tradition, now tattered in the cruel confinement behind barbed wire. The red Daruma, its eye scraped away, marks the destruction of a dream.
During WWII, over 120,000 Japanese Americans—most of them U.S. citizens and none of them charged with crimes of disloyalty —were forced from their homes into prison camps. The barbed wire here is not only a reminder of those camps, but a metaphor for the prejudice and fear that still threaten our vulnerable minorities.
In my legal career, I fought to secure redress for this community. Through art, I now seek to keep their stories alive—so that we remember the cost of injustice and the courage it takes to resist it. This work is both a memorial and a warning: when fear facilitates injustice, lives are destroyed, and a nation’s promises are betrayed.
egcarson@icloud.com"
The antique kimono with family crests speaks to generations of honor and tradition, now tattered in the cruel confinement behind barbed wire. The red Daruma, its eye scraped away, marks the destruction of a dream.
During WWII, over 120,000 Japanese Americans—most of them U.S. citizens and none of them charged with crimes of disloyalty —were forced from their homes into prison camps. The barbed wire here is not only a reminder of those camps, but a metaphor for the prejudice and fear that still threaten our vulnerable minorities.
In my legal career, I fought to secure redress for this community. Through art, I now seek to keep their stories alive—so that we remember the cost of injustice and the courage it takes to resist it. This work is both a memorial and a warning: when fear facilitates injustice, lives are destroyed, and a nation’s promises are betrayed.
egcarson@icloud.com"
Ellen Godbey Carson
"Resilience", a tribute to those who suffered in the Great East Japan Earthquake & Tsunami in Fukushima, and to the extraordinary resilience of a community that has suffered such great loss. This quilt is made of antique kimono fabrics, with hand painted cranes standing against the raging waves. egcarson@icloud.com
Ellen Godbey Carson
"I've Got the Blues for Japan". This quilt was made from kimono fabrics during the early part of the pandemic, when I longed for a world that would be safe enough to travel again. It includes a multitude of different fabrics, including shibori, ukiyo-e drawings, hand-painted waterfall and cranes. egcarson@icloud.com
Ellen Godbey Carson
Kuoyou: A medley of autumn colors exude the beauty from these vintage kimono fabrics, giving them new life and appreciation . egcarson@icloud.com
Ellen Godbey Carson
Skoshi Kouyou - A medley of autumn colors exude beauty from these tiny pieces of vintage kimono fabrics. egcarson@icloud.com
Ellen Godbey Carson
Tsuru and waves: This quilt is made from vintage kimono fabrics, giving them new life and appreciation. , egcarson@icloud.com
Irene Ho
"Artwork Title: Dragon
Artwork Statement: I had the honor of visiting and documenting the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple, a space where Buddhist traditions continue to flourish within the diverse cultural landscape of Los Angeles. This photograph captures an incense burner adorned with two dragon heads, symbols often associated with protection, wisdom, and spiritual power in East Asian traditions. As incense rises from the vessel, the dragons appear to guard the act of offering, creating a visual connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.
Artist: Irene Ho
Email: h.irene1011@gmail.com"
Artwork Statement: I had the honor of visiting and documenting the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple, a space where Buddhist traditions continue to flourish within the diverse cultural landscape of Los Angeles. This photograph captures an incense burner adorned with two dragon heads, symbols often associated with protection, wisdom, and spiritual power in East Asian traditions. As incense rises from the vessel, the dragons appear to guard the act of offering, creating a visual connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.
Artist: Irene Ho
Email: h.irene1011@gmail.com"
Irene Ho
"Artwork Title: Garden
Artwork Statement: I had the honor of visiting and documenting the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple. This photograph captures the temple’s garden, featuring a monk statue wearing a traditional Japanese monk’s hat alongside a carefully maintained pine tree.
Through the quiet presence of the statue and the surrounding landscape, I sought to capture the sense of peace and continuity preserved within the temple grounds. The garden serves as a bridge between past and present, illustrating how cultural traditions can be carried across oceans and generations while finding a new sense of belonging within an American environment.
Artist: Irene Ho
Email: h.irene1011@gmail.com
"
Artwork Statement: I had the honor of visiting and documenting the West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple. This photograph captures the temple’s garden, featuring a monk statue wearing a traditional Japanese monk’s hat alongside a carefully maintained pine tree.
Through the quiet presence of the statue and the surrounding landscape, I sought to capture the sense of peace and continuity preserved within the temple grounds. The garden serves as a bridge between past and present, illustrating how cultural traditions can be carried across oceans and generations while finding a new sense of belonging within an American environment.
Artist: Irene Ho
Email: h.irene1011@gmail.com
"
Becky Brendlin Sugiyama - Enmanji
This is titled “Emergence”. As we walk along our path to enlightenment, we look for the mist to lift as we emerge from the fog of our everyday lives. Bbrendlin@gmail.com
Shawna S. Truong - Enmanji
“Golden Offerings”. Acrylic paint on 8”x10” canvas. Artist email: sstruong891@gmail.com
Valerie Fletcher Oda - Alameda
5.5"x7.5" Mixed media ink and watercolor sketch of the Buddhist Temple of Alameda's 2026 Obon Festival. valerie.fletcher@gmail.com
Shawna S. Truong - Enmanji
Title: “Simple Abundance”. Acrylic paint on 8”x10” canvas. Artist email: sstruong891@gmail.com.
Shawna S. Truong and Derek M. Miyasaki - Enmanji
Blue and Green Chawan duo with Ebony Shoyu-zara. Medium: Clay with glossy glaze finish. Artist emails: sstruong891@gmail.com, derekmiyasaki@yahoo.com
Shawna S. Truong - Enmanji
Title: “Where Stillness Blooms”. Acrylic paint on 16”x 20” canvas. Artist email: sstruong891@gmail.com
Jean-Paul deGuzman - San Fernando
Photography - I'd like to think these two images acknowledge and unsettle our assumptions about beginnings and endings.
Jean-Paul deGuzman - San Fernando
I'd like to think these two images acknowledge and unsettle our assumptions about beginnings and endings.
Douglas C Gentry - Placer
photographs of Penryn property
Douglas Gentry - Placer
photograph of rural Penryn property in the fall with granite outcrops and trees
Everett Rudolph - Oregon
Dharma wheel embroidered on painted canvas.
Carmen Julia Castellon - Oregon
Pastel on paper - Before I joined my first service at the OBT I found this image online and created my own version of the Buddha I wanted to meet one day, a serene and colorful one.
Gretchen V Hansen - White River
In the Tale of Yasuko Kodama, the wave of blue carries Yasuko's story from birth into the Otani Family temple, through her childhood in Tokyo with her brothers before World War II and the following devastation until she meets her future fiancee through an omiai in which she prepares the tea for another intended. When she receives the proposal instead, she has only one night to decide before her prospective groom flies back to the U.S as a distinguished professor of organic chemistry at the University of Utah, where they make their new home together.
Gretchen V Hansen - White River
Catherine Leece-Chong - Enmanji
In "Tunnel of Love," on a walk beneath overarching branches, two sisters embrace their baby sister .
Catherine Leece-Chong - Enmanji
"Three Refuges
Guru, Dharma and Sangha.
Ink on Asian paper"
Guru, Dharma and Sangha.
Ink on Asian paper"
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