I found work in a factory, in 1974, and bought my first camera, lenses, darkroom equipment, photo books and magazines. And saved enough for my first year of Art School at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Art and Design, starting in the fall of 1975.
I've been feeding the visually starved ever since.
I loved my Foundation Art and Design classes with Industrial Designer, Bill Becker and Abstract Expressionist Painter, Morris Barazani and Sculptor, Paul Zakoian. I found nourishment from black-and-white Photography 101 taught by Art Photographer, Esther Parada. I entered my personal color photography in a contest over winter break and won Nikon Photography Awards in the Design Category and Beauty Category in 1976.
Out of money for college, I returned thanks to the UIC Art/Design Scholarship awarded for the calendar year 1977. I threw myself into Photography 102 taught by Art Photographer, Joseph Jachna. And classes in Architectural Photography, Studio Photography, and Independent Studies in Color Photography.
Working as a student employee in the Darkroom, I developed glaucoma from a chronic disease known as ocular sarcoidosis. Due to the eye medications, I could not see in daylight without sunglasses or closer than two feet. I received the UIC Art/Design Scholarship awarded for 1978 and took electives for the year before I threw away my eye medications, vowing to will myself back to good health.
Twenty years later, I was delighted to receive the SoftQuad Website Design Award when "Clyde Okita Photography Portfolio" was named a Top Ten Homepage, out of five hundred entrants, for "the essence of simplicity and elegance in design" in 1997.
My recent photography was accepted by Artist Rising in 2007. And by Art.com, AllPosters.com, and Amazon.com shortly thereafter.
July 2008, I woke up after being unconscious for two weeks, on a ventilator and dialysis while fighting pneumonia and acute necrotizing pancreatitis.
I'm offering Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and Morning and Evening Gongyo to the Gohonzon, under the direction of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism's NST Myogyoji Temple Chief Priest Rev. Shingi Iwaki.
"I feel like I've reincarnated," I can tell you with amazement. "And I feel great!"
January 9, 2009, my widowed Mom, Patsy Okita, had a massive stroke. "I know it's scary to be paralyzed in the hospital," I told her, in a rare moment, when her eyes were open. "The worst part was that I couldn't chant. Everything was so distracting. Mom, you have to chant with me, now. Nam. Myoho. Renge. Kyo. Nam. Myoho. Renge. Kyo. Nam. Myoho. Renge. Kyo." She seemed to be trying to say it with me for a few minutes, until her eyes closed, and she began to snore.