I was visiting my daughter and grandchildren in California when the Covid virus hit. With her compromised immune system, I cut the visit short, changed my ticket and returned to Colorado the first week in March immediately going into quarantine for two weeks. We also went into lock-down mode at the Museum of Friends, where I would normally be. This forced stay at home afforded me studio time the next few months during which I created the work on exhibit. The imagery comes from my study of the visual history of my Hawaiian ancestors found in tapa (bark cloth), rock carving (petroglyphs) and limited wood carving. I say limited because most of the carved wood was taken and burned by missionaries who saw it as idol worship. The few pieces that exist today were taken aboard visiting ships as souvenirs mainly to Europe. In my work, repeat images represent my favorite themes, community and waves. Only in community, we exist and waves, the vehicle and meaning of everything. The layers of repeat images are seen as compressed space, symbolic of our electronic age, speed of light, immediate illumination, the beginning and end at once. My material is stretched canvas and acrylic medium. In January, painter Maria Cocchiarelli completed a public mural commission 80ft. x 25ft. opposite the Museum of Friends in Walsenburg. My covid paintings were painted with the acrylic medium left over from this mural project.
