Call to the community - Art Portrait Sessions
Smiling people in Aloha wear are a nice souvenir for those who love their time here or for local families celebrating a moment in time on their island home but I am looking to create more than that, real art in portraits. I am looking to go beyond the basics and create an art experience for the people who choose to be in front of my camera. Even more than that I want to create stories inspired by Hawaii and the experiences of the people who live here, I am looking for collaborations with other artists, writers, community leaders and creatives to create gallery worthy projects that communicate ideas and inspire conversations.
As a minority with a prominent indigenous culture lost to the westward expansion and war, I am sensitive to the need to document the beautiful human stories that will soon be forgotten with time and generations lost. I well know that the new stories are better served with the culture and wisdom of the old.
I've never felt more at home than I do here. I no longer live with the daily microagressions of my skin color or the pressure of fitting in to whatever prosperity culture is trending. So I offer my skills and creativity to something new and different for me. Art for arts sake. It's always been the basis for my paid work but I am ready to push the limits of what I've done in the past and what is expected.
So let's create together and lift up the raw honest stories that feature the humanity of the islands we all can relate to. It's a little like "Back to the Future" inspired by the old values and aesthetic but modern in the lives of the people dealing with today's Hawaii.
Contact me and let's talk story to make a difference!
"Reclaiming Indigenous Bodies:
The power of living in the skin of our ancestral legacy"
For me, being strong has always been more important than how my body looked. My strength protected me from the dangers of the misogyny that believed my brown body was an object for touching without my consent. Something my indigenous great grandmothers had no choice in during occupation and war.
Indigenous bodies are only deemed beautiful when they fit the altered reality of Western beauty ideals. But our bodies reflect the beauty of our ancestral legacy in all the variety of ancestral indigenous women.This project starting on the Hawaiian islands will reclaim the power of the Polynesian bodies that helped create a unique culture all it's own and show the power of living in the skin of our ancestral legacy.
So this Kino (body) photoshoot in collaboration with Dr. Sara Vogel will tell that story.