Jes did all the dirty work and I was moral support. Someone had to keep their hands clean in case we had to call for back up.

The year is halfway gone and this is only 1 of 2 posts I have shared over six months. I’d like to give you reasons for my “busy” schedule, but really I should remember what all of this was about when it started. I wanted a way to chronicle my work, life, and thoughts. Over the years I went through periods where what I posted didn’t matter, the depth of the writing was not important, and all I really wanted to do was show something.

For the next half of the year I’d like to make a promise to myself to frequent this space more. Posts don’t have to happen daily, they should happen regularly. I experienced a lot of firsts in 2017, traveled to new places and continue to learn about myself and challenge myself in my work. You’ll see some of them here. No captions, no locations but just enough to know a little more about this story.

And it’s times like these that make me even more thankful to end my day this way.

For the first seven weeks of summer we were planning a mural and for the last 10 days we were painting it. A team of BHS Art Alumni gathered together in the same place we all started–the Art Room. If it wasn’t for our Art teacher and Art Mother,  we wouldn’t be here. In her teaching career, Mrs. Janet Sato has given students a lot more than an art education, but encouraged, challenged, and guided us in our life and careers. She may not realize what she has done for all of us but I think the success of this mural shows all that and more.  I found myself doing a lot of “back-end” work. I can not take credit for painting huge parts of the mural, but instead I was keeping tabs on our digital needs and building us a website. After the start of the project, I had flashbacks to grad school. I realized there had to be a way to document the process and share what everyone was putting into this project. I was impressed daily by the team and honored to be among so many talents artists. We sweat through our shirts and suffered bumps and bruises too, but no matter what we kept going until the mural was DONE. 

I took a chance and painted those little white flowers on the bottom. We saw this special flower, the Nohoanu (Geranium multiform, on our hike in Waikamoi Preserve. A very rare flower that only grows there, up in Haleakala. I haven’t picked up a paintbrush in years. Well, not one that required more than painting a single color on walls, but I am glad I did. I didn’t forget how to paint and I even got to collaborate with my junior and senior year English teacher on this one. How about that! Now that this is over, it’s a little bittersweet. We are happy to see the product of all our planning, but we are also sad to part ways again. This project brought together people who would not cross paths on a regular basis. Mrs. Sato holds us all together and we are lucky to have her to inspire, challenge, and bring out the best in us. This mural is one of the reasons I am happy to be here, giving back the the community and place that gave me so much. For the whole story visit www.bhsmural.com.

There’s a lot going on at Baldwin High School right now. The center of campus has been home to a mural for years. We are respectfully replacing the one that was there through all my high school years and the focal point of campus. All the artists involved are donating their time, spending hours working to get this done. We have been planning this for seven weeks, and these last two are gonna be the best. Wait for it, it will only get better from here.

Going up 10,000 feet to see what the birds and native plants are doing up on Haleakala. This was just the beginning. The rest of Maui is down there, somewhere!

Vicky the cat has the right to roam inside our house but during the day she’d rather be cruising in this soda box. If I could fit, I’d be right there too. Looks like a  pretty sweet spot cuddling up next to those two pairs of shoes.

Do you ever go to Sam Sato’s and order a papaya and teri stix? Yeah no, I never did either until the other day. No regrets.

I took this picture while driving and I’m not sorry about it. Rules are meant to be broken and life’s a gamble. Play your cards right, or wrong.

Perfect. Y/N/M?

The secret’s out, watchout.

Going halfsies on this meatloaf sandwich and a chocolate pie with one of my bests. We ate the pie before dinner, SNS.