About

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I consider myself a regional painter, having always been drawn to very specific subjects... people and places on the island of Kauai, my home now for over fifty years. My paintings are colored by my tastes, my experiences, my fascination with history and other things beyond my understanding.

When my fifth grade teacher put a globe in front of the class and asked us to find our Hawaii home, I paid close attention. It was 1955 and I lived in Waikiki in Territorial Hawaii. As my classmate pointed to our place on the globe, I was alarmed to see that we were just a tiny freckle on the huge Pacific Ocean. Today I’m comfortable knowing I live in the most isolated place on the planet. And I wonder how this has affected my artwork.

I never planned to be an artist. My family owned an art gallery and my mother was a successful Honolulu portrait painter. I loved art but felt no interest in pursuing it as a career.

In 1974 my husband’s job brought us to the island of Kauai. A year later I found myself alone with three little children. I rented a house by the beach in the small village of Anahola and began a new life. It was a place that gathered me in its arms and placed me on a new path. In the middle of the night I began to draw and paint. While the world slept, my creative world was wide awake. I drew self-portraits. I painted pictures of the food in my refrigerator. I drew my sleeping children, their blonde hair cascading over pillows. These midnight art forays changed my life’s trajectory. I embarked on an artist’s journey that has continued until today. I am grateful for or the creative path my life has taken.

“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye...it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.”

- Edvard Munch