#deathofcaptaincook

[shoutsfromthedesert]

“The Death of Captain Cook” oil on masonite, h29.75” x w36”, 2020 This painting comes after a long series of Hawaiian themed drawings, paintings and ceramics in which I explored many of my notions about simultaneously being, and not being, Hawaiian. I call this series “Ho’okolonaio”, or “colony” and you can see many examples by scrolling my posts. Many of those themes reappear in this epic scene. But this painting also follows in the tradition of the many historic depictions of this 1779 event and actually quotes figures from a few, something I’ve never done before. When I add figures from throughout Hawaii’s history the painting becomes unmoored in time and, I hope, unique. It also comes a year after finding by chance a group of Hawaiians in New York City chanting and dancing in support of Mauna Kea. For several months I joined them weekly when I could. This year personal circumstances, as well as the pandemic, have kept me away from them but not a day has gone by that I do not think of the Mauna and the many Hawaiian people scattered across the earth. #hawaii #hawaiian #hawai'i #colonization #hawaiianindependence #kingdomofhawaii #nycpainter #nypainter #newyorkpainter #newyorkart #newyorkartist #contemporarypainting #nycart #brooklynartist #volcano #lava #pacific #captaincook #deathofcaptaincook #hawaii1893 #outrigger #iiwi #wahine #doleplantationhawaii #kamehameha #liliuokalani (at Brooklyn, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEQCB65lP5O/?igshid=u0o4k9imr119