Statement

In the dirt in an Oʻahu community garden plot on Pūowaina are my dye plants. Aloe, safflower, ʻukiʻuki berries, cosmos, butterfly pea and many kinds of hibiscus flowers all have generously shared their colors for this work. Years ago, I shifted to predominantly using natural dyes and other materials. This has provided a path to researching indigenous natural dyestuffs as well as an opportunity to remember and discover my personal ancestral connections to plants. Included here are colors made from walnut husks and marigold flowers which were a regular part of my life since I was a child. The blended color palette of the sewn silk organza contains layers of time, memory, and place that offers a chance of new interpretations of personal chronology.

At its core, my practice explores the question: how do landscape and place shape me? Not only in the sense of what an environment looks like, but how the places that I’ve lived and loved have influenced my life experiences, my body, and my beliefs. This question provides a foundation for exploring memories and stories using combinations of color, form, and shape to interrogate influences and narratives of my life that may not serve me anymore. The repetitive, physical actions of working with wire and quilt-inspired sewing evoke a meditative state. I simultaneously remember, re-remember, unwind, and rework implicit memories and engrained internal systems that told me how to understand myself. This process gives clarity to what to protect and what to let go.