A Place is a Story Happening Many Times
For generations, people have stood beneath the expansive landscapes of Hawaii, contemplating the unknown. Fascinated by the mountain and cloud formations of Mauna Kahalwai (West Maui Mountains), I join them. In a sensate response to the landscape, I’ve translated the figurative and spiritual experience of gazing upon the mountain into this body of work.
I often pause to photograph Mauna Kahalawai (the west maui mountains) as I am held captive by the image of the mountain anchored to the sky by clouds. Little did I know that these every day images would become the focus of my practice while I grappled with the uncertainty and chaos that arrived with covid-19.
As our lives suddenly changed, I initially found myself unable to work and my mind often called upon these images of the West Maui Mountains for respite, and soon, they became a nostalgic icon, symbolic of resilience and strength. The mountains became a landscape of longing in the midst of loss; both a comfort and a muse.
Clouds embrace matter
With chaos arrives a muse
Landscape of longing
Intuitively, I began to make ink and watercolor paintings based upon the many photographs I had taken over the years. As I became unstuck, the direction of my work shifted while concurrently spending more time outdoors. The entire year was spent exploring new processes and materials including silk, flax fiber, and momi-gami paper, as I worked to translate the wonder of the landscape into new forms.
A plein-air interpretation of landscape, is replaced by a process that alters all the data (photographs, drawings, found objects and memory) into a new material story. The pieces are altered and assembled into a dimensional collage. I drawing gesturally with wire; stretching fabric, paper, and photographs like a skin over a linear skeleton.
My response to these objects is to re-create the journey based upon the recollection, so the work has objective references, yet captures a narrative that remains abstract and fictional. It is about recalling life as my story unfolds within a landscape. My desire is to create works that transform materials into poetic forms; creating a place where a story happens many times.*
I invite you to imagine and reflect upon your own story even as you experience mine.
Poet and writer Emily Threatt of Maui has shared her story and experience of her view of the mountain through Haiku Poetry, found within the installation,
House of Water: The Meeting Place.
