"Pause, Not Pau: F8 View" was created in 2018 during the Kīlauea eruption, as part of the Displaced series — a collection of mixed media works made while evacuated from my home and studio in Lower Puna. Over 60 days I moved through eight residences, creating without a studio, without certainty, and without knowing when it would end.

The title holds a bilingual tension. In Hawaiian, pau means finished, done, complete. This work was made in the pause before knowing — not pau, not over, just suspended in the in-between.

The composition emerged after seeing an aerial view of Fissure 8 without spewing lava for the first time since the beginning of the eruption. Deep burgundy anchors the center, a mass of new earth. Black marks spiral and sweep beneath, restless and unresolved. A single arc of gold cuts through — light finding its way in. White opacity grounds it all, a history of what came before still visible underneath.

Eight years on, the work remains in excellent condition, framed and ready to hang.