The portrait above is of "Jackie Hashimoto" It was a 18x24 oil on canvas. Giclees, posters, cards are available upon request. The original belongs to Jackie's daughters.
The reason I insert this painting here is to compare emotions.
Jackie Hasimoto had passed. I never met him. Before I started to paint him I asked his wife for more images and stories about him. I wanted to know who he was before I tried to understand how I would paint him.
At Jackie Hashimoto's funeral his family parked his truck as it had always been. It was filled with things to help people out if he drove by and saw someone in need. A throw net and fishing equipment was also inside. Jackie Hashimoto was a fisherman.
I painted the above piece in two sessions. I cried the whole time. I had felt a connection to him that was very dear. He was a kind man. In the end isn't that what we hope people will be able to say about us, that we were kind?
The connection I hope to make in this new series "Ala o Pele" is to the land and its own mind. Lava Tree Park shows the wrath of Pele, and yet the forming of new land. The Big Island is the newest island, Kauai being the oldest. The Big Island is still a work in progress, forming and having its own say on how it will develop. So amazing isn't it?
I asked my model to stand in awe before the statues of lava that Pele had left behind. The lava formations almost come to life there and I wanted to capture that. Dennis caught the moment for me on camera. I will then take those images and bring them to canvas hoping to bring the connection together and breath life into them.
I have in the past described myself as a figurative artist. I do paint that but more importantly I paint emotions. I hope to connect with this series as I did with my painting of Jackie Hashimoto. I find myself breathing out recognitions of a world I am trying to understand. It is a holy experience as I have said before.
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