It’s been a hot minute since I had a reason to paint, but I got to fill a whole wall at a gallery this month, so it was the perfect opportunity to dust off the acrylics and canvas!
I decided to focus on our local endemic forest birds, and I tried to bring some joy to it, even though there are only a handful of species left. (However, I feel like people are bummed, and someone even called it depressing!)
Anyway, I filled the wall with mixed media, as my main focus was on some stoneware masks I made, but I was really excited to paint again!
Here are some 2-D pieces from my installation. 
For this one, I tried to imagine the bright colors of the 'ō’ū, which was last seen in 1989:
A pueo family (they’re still around, though there aren’t many left):
Here are a bunch of O’ahu nukupu’u in a koa tree. (This one is gouache, not acrylic). One of the challenges I had was how so many of these birds evolved with the plants around them, so the flora and fauna would take on characteristics of each other; I thought it would be fun to have an I Spy/Where’s Waldo piece, heehee.
A graphic, almost lino-cut style acrylic painting of the O’ahu 'Ō’ō (last seen in 1837):
And one more of an 'i’iwi (which is still around, although its existence is questionable on O’ahu at this point) in an 'ōhi’a tree:
And here’s just a quick photo of the wall when we installed. Thank you for looking!
