MOLOKAI MOONLIT WATERFALL
To start the new year strong I thought I’d share some of my vibrant art pillows. This purple and aqua design is the first of three that I’m be offering in my shop this month and it features my acrylic painting called ‘Molokai Moonlit Waterfall’. It has a special place in my heart as it was only after painting it that I stepped back, blinked a few times, and tears really began to flow. It hit me right in the heart because once again the islands emerged from my spontaneous art time.
I had just set out to use colors that make my heart sing and to have fun letting my brush & pallet knife skip and flow across the plywood. So it really surprised me when I ended up with an image that took me back to a powerful memory from 1987, when a pilot friend generously gifted me an incredible private flight from Oahu to Maui to visit my then boyfriend (now husband of 33 years) Tom. On my new teachers salary I couldn’t quite afford to even fly inter-island commercial planes, so needless to say this was a huge treat.
On the way to Maui he flew me so close to the cliffs and waterfalls of Molokai that it literally made me gasp. Such an incredible memory, but oddly one I almost never revisited…until this painting. Middle aged me has been struggling with years of big health challenges, loads of pain and of course the pandemic, so this memory of 23 year old Zora really caught me off guard and filled me with a feeling of reliving that amazing day and the many blessings I’ve had in life.
Art can be that way, bringing to the surface the things that are most true, meaningful or precious. I love that about it. Just wish I found painting a little less scary to do with regularity. It can feel so vulnerable and at times almost as heart stopping as that small aircraft flight along those cliffs in 1987. Scary and thrilling.
I may not be a master painter and I don’t claim to be creating masterpieces, but I do know that sometimes there’s an energy that’s captured when any of us create from the heart. It’s my deep desire to offer what I can to help us all reclaim the health of this beautiful planet… and each soul upon it. Something tells me it involves returning to the deep, real places inside ourselves and finding that even if it’s scary we will find what we most long for. Join me there, would you?