Displaced: The Day the Red Glow Stopped

A process-driven piece created while displaced during the 2018 Kilauea eruption. On May 3rd, 2018, I evacuated my home and studio in Lower Puna. Over the next 70 days, I sought refuge in eight separate residences. During this time the DISPLACED series was created, a collection of mixed-media works on paper. Playing with textural mark-making, white space, and opacity, the work evokes movement, situational chaos, and inspiration from the Hawaiian coastal color palette. Through instinctual mark-making, color was applied to evoke feeling and structural stability. As the composition formed, the paintings began to resemble something more representational – a bold swatch of color translating new earth. Small hatches resemble earthquakes. The opacity of new marks covering old give history of what once existed – evoking the spirit of the creation from the lava destruction.