Simple Joys
29.5” x 39” x 2” framed
block-printed paper quilt
The first piece in a series of visual prayers, the genesis of the “Natural Comforts” collection.
After the 2023 Maui fires, I felt the need to take a break from creating art. I postponed my upcoming solo exhibition with Polu Galleries feeling that the vibrant show I was working on was now irrelevant and I needed to devout the stamina required to create a large body of works to help others instead.
One afternoon while sitting in my truck during my kid's football practice I realized that I needed to go back to art, inspired or not, because my funds had run dry and also because my body needed normalcy to remain healthy.
In that moment I prayed for inspiration, not just for me but as something that I could offer to the hurting community around me. After praying I shuffled through the seats and found my kid’s pencil, a picture book for a desktop, and a scrap piece of paper to draw on. Looking around again, I shuffled through my change compartment where I stored my seashells and found a simple white clamshell that I had collected from a Lahaina beach before the fires. It felt innocent, not something that would heal all the pain around me but something that wouldn’t add to it.
I realized there, that my goal was not to take away the pain, because indeed, pain was the appropriate reaction to all the loss around us. So I began to draw and the more I got into it, the more I felt like a weight had been lifted. I felt comforted with a natural comfort, and I wanted that for everyone.
Birthed from that moment in the truck, I decided that each piece in the series would have a warm comforting palette and would be created as a prayer for the people of Lahaina, Kula, and surrounding communities that also felt the loss of beloved lands and people. “Simple Joys” was my prayer for simpler times to come as well as a prayer of gratitude for the simple joys that remained either physically or in memory.
Available at Polu Galley
Waikiki/Haleiwa Oahu
29.5” x 39” x 2” framed
block-printed paper quilt
The first piece in a series of visual prayers, the genesis of the “Natural Comforts” collection.
After the 2023 Maui fires, I felt the need to take a break from creating art. I postponed my upcoming solo exhibition with Polu Galleries feeling that the vibrant show I was working on was now irrelevant and I needed to devout the stamina required to create a large body of works to help others instead.
One afternoon while sitting in my truck during my kid's football practice I realized that I needed to go back to art, inspired or not, because my funds had run dry and also because my body needed normalcy to remain healthy.
In that moment I prayed for inspiration, not just for me but as something that I could offer to the hurting community around me. After praying I shuffled through the seats and found my kid’s pencil, a picture book for a desktop, and a scrap piece of paper to draw on. Looking around again, I shuffled through my change compartment where I stored my seashells and found a simple white clamshell that I had collected from a Lahaina beach before the fires. It felt innocent, not something that would heal all the pain around me but something that wouldn’t add to it.
I realized there, that my goal was not to take away the pain, because indeed, pain was the appropriate reaction to all the loss around us. So I began to draw and the more I got into it, the more I felt like a weight had been lifted. I felt comforted with a natural comfort, and I wanted that for everyone.
Birthed from that moment in the truck, I decided that each piece in the series would have a warm comforting palette and would be created as a prayer for the people of Lahaina, Kula, and surrounding communities that also felt the loss of beloved lands and people. “Simple Joys” was my prayer for simpler times to come as well as a prayer of gratitude for the simple joys that remained either physically or in memory.
Available at Polu Galley
Waikiki/Haleiwa Oahu
29.5” x 39” x 2” framed
block-printed paper quilt
The first piece in a series of visual prayers, the genesis of the “Natural Comforts” collection.
After the 2023 Maui fires, I felt the need to take a break from creating art. I postponed my upcoming solo exhibition with Polu Galleries feeling that the vibrant show I was working on was now irrelevant and I needed to devout the stamina required to create a large body of works to help others instead.
One afternoon while sitting in my truck during my kid's football practice I realized that I needed to go back to art, inspired or not, because my funds had run dry and also because my body needed normalcy to remain healthy.
In that moment I prayed for inspiration, not just for me but as something that I could offer to the hurting community around me. After praying I shuffled through the seats and found my kid’s pencil, a picture book for a desktop, and a scrap piece of paper to draw on. Looking around again, I shuffled through my change compartment where I stored my seashells and found a simple white clamshell that I had collected from a Lahaina beach before the fires. It felt innocent, not something that would heal all the pain around me but something that wouldn’t add to it.
I realized there, that my goal was not to take away the pain, because indeed, pain was the appropriate reaction to all the loss around us. So I began to draw and the more I got into it, the more I felt like a weight had been lifted. I felt comforted with a natural comfort, and I wanted that for everyone.
Birthed from that moment in the truck, I decided that each piece in the series would have a warm comforting palette and would be created as a prayer for the people of Lahaina, Kula, and surrounding communities that also felt the loss of beloved lands and people. “Simple Joys” was my prayer for simpler times to come as well as a prayer of gratitude for the simple joys that remained either physically or in memory.
Available at Polu Galley
Waikiki/Haleiwa Oahu