LUSH Sketch Series

I've been back from Maui for 10 days now. It has taken me some time to readjust to the dryness of Seattle... how strange that sounds. But it is true, in the summer months Hana is more wet than Seattle. My sinuses have settled down, finally. My hair is looking more like itself again too. It had taken to looking increasingly shorter in the wet salty air.

And I've been able to retain some of my slow-motion attitude I so carefully honed while watching the big water and big sky. It's not so readily available here, but I can still feel the mood. One new habit I am particularly fond of is sketching. For the first time in my life... and that's saying a lot for a visual artist... I've gotten hooked on my sketchbook. Of course its because I'm doing a more formal version of my own doodlings. I never really liked doing realistic sketching. It hurts my brain.


But this is fun. I've done some version of this forever. But staying in Hana I decided to focus my doodles into the series of Lush drawings, inspired by the abundant and gargantuan flora in the Hawaiian Islands. And what I particularly enjoy is that none of them are real. I like making them up. I like to be amazed by the wondrousness of actual flora patterns, and then I like to let my imagination wander into other sorts of possible patterns.

I always thought the best job in the world would be to design flowers... the entire plant from seed to withering stalk with all the stages in between. What a fabulous creative project. And so I've taken on a bit of that spirit in these drawings. They are already influencing the paintings in my studio. They make me smile!

Clear Horizon With Nothing On It

For the first time since my arrival almost 3 weeks ago, I can see the true horizon! The past two days have been beautiful. After the few weeks of rain and wind, with a lot of sun too, things seem to have calmed down. The water was so smooth this morning, I braved Hamoa beach. On a borrowed boogie board, I had a lot of fun riding the waves (well, my style of just holding on and floating around). I should have had one of these all along and eliminated the beach geek factor of the flotation vest.

This third week in Hana has been very nice. I've reached my restful state of just hanging around Hana-style, following whatever I feel like in the moment, even if its nothing. I can pass the whole day here moving from one comfy chair to another with a few good books and my sketch pad. Sometimes I even turn on music.

I knew that 3 wks was the magic number: two to run around being energetic and enthusiastic, and one to mellow and listen to the rhythms. I've been glad to have Gaby the cat as a companion, ever faithful when a gecko gets on the go. And she's been glad to have me too, all that attention.

Now when I get back to Seattle I'll be totally rested. I've got nothing planned for July at all! I don't want to think about that yet, not even making plans for next week. I just want to stay here, today, right now with the gentle breeze, ever-changing light, bird calls, and a soft cat on my lap.

Maui: Rain and Then Some...

It is amazing how much it can rain here. I'm not talking about the slow, gray, pissing skies of Seattle. I mean really rain, sheets of water pouring down. I've been watching the squalls come in, sometimes several visible at once, layers masking the horizon line. I now realize that most of what I thought was horizon line is really just the closest squall that's still pretty far out.

And when they hit it is sudden, like going into the car wash. Loud and wet. This morning I sat here watching the squalls, then the sun poking out. Which way will it go? Is it a good swim day? Unclear.

So I'm sitting here reading my book on menopause and I start hearing water. I look up and am surprised to not see the rain hitting windows. How can that be? It sounds like it is hitting the roof... or is it this way near the... and then it gets really loud! OH MY!

I jump up and run to the window. Yes indeed, and they said it wouldn't happen!


Adjacent to the property here, and I mean less than 2 yards from the house, is a cliff which overlooks this gorge with a seasonal 200 ft. waterfall. Its rain-fed, so won't run unless there's been a lot of rain. I told you it was raining a lot. Two weeks ago it was dry season!

This water will flow down to the Venus pools by the ocean. Today's tourists will be treated to a wonderful wet swim. In the 90 minutes its been running it has slowed. We'll see how long it goes.

(UPDATE: in less than two hours since it started running, the waterfall was down to a trickle. Within a hour after that, it's all dry except for the small pools. So, it pays to be lazy and just sit around until something exciting happens. Everyone else missed it).

Maui: Lying Low

See what I mean by gargantuan strange things growing here? A banana plant.

Today was not very exciting, but it felt good. I had a hard time sleeping last night. The day's bug bites had overwhelmed my legs, my knees all swelled, red, itching as all hell. I had spent about 20 min. outside talking with the neighbor and got about 40 mosquito bites.

And then there was that bit of sunburn from my day in the shade. My knees mostly, right where the bug bites are the worst. It is an intense torture to lie still wanting to scratch, knowing that scratching will only makes things worse. After rubbing all kinds of things on them, I finally fell to sleep. The cat had been zonked out for an hour with her face planted in the sheets. And so we slept in to 7am and lazed about this morning reading poetry by David Whyte.

After lunch I rode into town is search of produce and fresh fish. I can't believe there isn't a fish market here. You have to find a fisherman who puts a sign on the side of the road and sells his catch. I was lucky and found that the produce stand had some fisherman's fish today, so I'm having ahi for dinner.

There are all these weird sounds outside right now. There is a herd of wild cattle running through the valley and it sounds like one of them is stuck in the ravine below me, but it could be anywhere with the sound acoustics. I'm discovering the source of some of the strange sounds I hear here, many birds, and even the screen door has it's own particular chattering song.

Strange Growths Found in Tree

Barbara De Pirro's fungo plastico. More at http://flickr.com/gp/depirro/wGqK4y

This link came across my email this morning. Carkeek Park in Seattle is hosting a site-specific art installation and Barbara is one of the artists participating. I just love this work! It fits nicely with my current passion with strange weird growths in the jungle, or the northwest woods for that matter.

But what I really admire about this work is that it's made from plastic bags. And remarkably, she's been able to create work that actually looks like it is natural. It fits right in with the environment. You'd expect it to ooze goo and have bugs living inside.

I think about the use of art materials, expensive, precious materials that need to be handled gently, framed archivally, presented in pristine environments. Acrylic paints are thought to be less toxic than working with oils, but they are plastic! They will never biodegrade. Just washing your paint brushes puts toxic plastics into the water supply. Is this something I can stand behind, participate in, knowing full well that autoimmune diseases are on the rise because we are polluting out earth?

This is a big question for me. Using recycled materials, upcycling, is growing as a viable resourceful way to produce things without adding to the problem. Its something I need to explore more seriously.

Maui: Beaching It

Alau (many rocks) Island from Koki Beach

Ah, I secured a beach chair, packed my lunch and a coconut drink, and sat on the beach for hours today. It only lightly drizzled twice, with sun the rest of the time. I had even taken a beach umbrella, but the beach has great shade areas so it wasn't necessary. The waves were pretty big, as this was Hamoa Beach, not the gentler Hana Bay, but I wanted the scene as much as the water. I got into the water enough to get wet and cool off, then spent the rest of the time sitting, watching, reading.

Up the road is a rougher beach that I didn't want to swim in, but the views there are beautiful too (pictured above).

I've been enjoying the tropical fruits that I've found at the local, organic, farmers stands. Strange fruits with names I can't remember, and tastes that are surprising. Yesterday I pulled a pineapple from the batch growing here on the property. It was small, but it had to be the best pineapple I've ever tasted, so smooth and sweet, less acidic than commercially grown.

Today when I returned from the beach I found two coconuts in my fridge! The neighbor had cut them down and opened them up for me. He's quite an expert - even left a little plug in the top that I can pull out and drink right out of. We've been having long conversations about eating habits, how so much commercially grown food is processed and unhealthy, poisoned, radiated, etc. He keeps a garden here, and eats food right off the trees, all year round.

I am watching the most amazing squall come in over the shore. The cloud is high enough that I can see under it, and there are long streaks of rain streaming down, hundreds of feet long. Its moving up the hill and will be here any second now. Wow! The wind is going in all directions! Rain is coming in ALL the windows! And there is blue sky right behind it!

Maui: Beach Dreams

I love the way things grow here. They are gargantuan, strange shapes, wild colors, thick, rubbery, weird growths popping out of the oddest places. It's inspiring my "lush" drawing series. Which is no where near as fantastic and creative, but its a start.

Today the sun was out. I didn't have any plans, so ended up going to Hamoa beach to watch the surfer dudes. It was high time at the beach, with umbrellas and lounge chairs for the hotel guests. Hana Hotel is down the road. It made me envious of such beach accommodations. I've been wanting some of that beach experience I've had in Mexico and Belize, sitting around under the umbrellas, sipping some tropical juices, watching the water. It exists on the other side of the island, a long drive away as I've already established. But I now realize I can do that right here if I can find my own beach chair. I need the chair, not because I have this picture-perfect idea I need to attain, but because I can't get down to the sand, literally. I need to sit on something chair-height or I can't get back up again. So that's the plan for the remainder of the week, if the sun holds out.

I took a cruise through the Hana Hotel grounds. Pretty nice place, well groomed, plenty of shady wind-swept areas to sit. I could easily pass for a guest and use the pool. But securing a beach boy to dig a hole for my umbrella probably requires a room number. Again, I am amazed at the variety and abundance of the blooms here. The hotel grounds has a lot of beautiful plants and trees. Once of the workers saw me admiring a huge tree completely covered in red blooms, so she ran over and popped one off and had me put it in my hair, Hawaii style.

Mahalo! Aloha!