We are happy to share our art with you
Rainbow #8, Rainbow#9, Rainbow#10
These three kids are holding food that recalls Kathy’s childhood – miniature cereal boxes that covert to bowls, personalized ice cream cups and stovetop jiffy pop popcorn.
They are immersed in a background that is as colorful as a rainbow and chaotic.
The bandages suggest healing.
Material: Acrylic and Oil on canvas
Size: 30″x40″ each
The age-old question of why we are here and what is our purpose, pops up from time to time. As I get older, my curiosity to answer that gets stronger. I realize that everything happens for a reason and I could have been anything in this life.
At a young age I could look at an animal and feel so much love for it, that I could cry at the thought of it dying some day. That is not unusual for anyone to feel this, but I come from a lineage of ancestors who have had a past(and present)of much animal brutality and cruelty. We all know the horrific stories.
Most every culture partakes in some act of treating animals with no regard or awareness that they are sentient beings. There is idea that we are superior and at the top of the food chain. In reality, we are all one, and if we hurt one, we hurt ourselves in the process. No culture is worse in this regard than others. I just have to start from some place, and it is my bloodline.
On the sides of my H.A.K. series paintings, I write the Chinese characters for “Love” and “Animals”. It is a straight forward message and I am now learning the strokes that my ancestors knew.
The first image is called “medicine doll” and the second piece is called “Oliver“
Material: oil and acrylic on wood
Size: “medicine doll” 24″24″, “Oliver” 6″x8″
This small diptych from 2020
It is no doubt that the pandemic caused people to feel cut off or miss being surrounded by friends or loved ones.
Or even strangers.
“Can You Hear Me?” Is a play on words of our childhood tin can telephones. The string that connects the cans is hanging by a thread and there is corrosion/rust which show the passing of time. Even though the duration of this time apart is unknown, the kids appear happy.I wanted to show that we are never really cut off from anything in this physical world. Everything is energy and vibrates. There is no separation since our energy fields mix. We are interconnected and the energy that is available, if we want to feel it, is more powerful than words. It is another reminder that we are all one.
Material: Acrylic and Oil on wood
Size: 2 paintings 20″x10″
This painting of a kid eating a juicy psychedelic yet strange fruit in front of a shattering chaotic background is the second piece we did together.
It is about how everything rhythmyclly falls apart and decents into chaos (e.g. the pandemic) only to give space for the new. The kids creative world seems full of color, dreamlike, playful and also a little threatening. It seems in its own world and the juicy fruit reminds us of the luscious nurturing aspects of mothers earthly delights.
Mediums used is acrylic paint, oil, spray paint and ink on canvas
60″ x 40″ in size and available for sale at Cedar Gallery in Honolulu
This small painting from 2018 shows one of the kids in a grey shirt with Hawaiian shave ice.
Material: Acrylic and Oil on canvas
Size: 10″x10″
These paintings are both done in 2019. They show the kids watching the seed grow into a ripe plum and a kid ready to bite into a wholesome butter toast.
“Kids are notorious for throwing away bread crust. And bread/wheat has been revered in many cultures as being sacred. So why not make the hard part of the bread more interesting so it will be appreciated? Similarly, if you have a deformity, why not tattoo the characters for gratitude and love on it?”
“Eating Yick Lung seeds was a big part of my childhood. It was bigger than candy. I recently wondered about all the seeds we ate and spit out in yards, if any would propagate after all these years.”
Material: Acrylic and Oil on wood
Size: 18″ x 18″
completed in 2019
Printing to set the random red background for this mixed media drawing. (2018) It is inspired by the psychological inkblot, getting deeper into the minds of the maker and viewer of the piece. Associations are welcome.
Mediums used is acrylic paint and dark india ink on paper
15,5″ x 22″ in size and available for sale.
Keiki Land was an indoor carnival at Ala Moana Center in the 1960’s/1970’s. Some of the rides were army tanks with guns, a Ferris wheel with metal cages and boat rides in real water. To me, the only thing missing was plastic trash floating. How horrific that is is the land we have left for keikis.
Material: Acrylic and Oil on canvas
Size: 30″ x 40″
I have been experimenting with black ink on very poppy acrylic colors. Plastic vibration, inspired by what’s floating around in the ocean here in Hawaii. Acrylic and ink on canvas panel.
Both small paintings are 8 x 10 inch in size.
This Painting is the starting point for our joint process. We made it together in 2017 when Anika first came to Hawaii. She sprayed the background and we worked over it with acrylic paint giving it the feel of street art as a tribute to the Berlin Wall. Kathy then added her kids on top, it seems like an autobiographical dreamwork. Mixed media and the size is ….
This pencil drawing from 2019 is one of the whole (un)becoming series. Lately I have been going back to using the very basic materials to draw and paint. Here its reduced to only graphite on rag paper.
15×11 inch in size and it is for sale
Dedicated to my father who passed. It seems appropriate to use graduated colors that are soft and light at the top so that there is a feeling of lifting off/elevating. The child is sitting on a 9 layer rice cake that peels off in layers. Saving the best for last.
Material: Acrylic and Oil on canvas
Size: 36″ x 48″
completed in 2018
I used nostalgic colors from the 70’s to express a time when Kamaboko slippers were the rage. The spiral pattern on this fish cake is the movement of growing plants. The tiny shoe belonged to a Chinese woman with bound feet. It is a reminder and control and binding does not promote growth.
Material: Acrylic and Oil on canvas
Size: 36″ x 18″
completed in 2017
lately I have been going back to using the very basic materials to draw and paint. Here are some drawings I have done in the last year. All are done with colored pencils, graphite, oil pastel on handmade paper.
15×11 inch in size
This small painting from 2017 shows one of the kids in a white shirt with rainbow jello. It is already sold.
Material: Acrylic and Oil on canvas
I was drawn to painting food with red centers because they look like little mandalas.The centers are visualized as the essence and the circumference as grasping, so mandala means grasping the essence. The red dots that are repeated on the forehead and background strengthen the feel of centeredness.
Material: Oil on canvas
Size: 36″ x 18″
completed in 2015