Kaala: The Flower of Lanai

While she is technically not a god, I found Kaala's legend too beautiful to resist illustrating. Daughter of Chief Oponui of Lanai, she was said to be the most beautiful girl in all the island. Kaala fell in love with Kaaialii, a lieutenant to the king of Hawaii. Oponui hated Kaaialii, and would do anything to keep Kaala from him. After Kaaialii fairly won Kaala's hand in marriage in a battle with another man, Oponui tricked his own daughter into following him to the sea shore, where he trapped her in a spouting cave far below the waves. He intended to tell her new husband that she had died tragically, hoping Kaaialii would then leave the island forever. Kaaialii did not leave, however, but went in search of Kaala. He finally found her in the sunken cave, but it was too late -Kaala died in his hands. Devastated, Kaaialii took his own life so that he could be with Kaala in the cave forever. Legend has it that to this day, the bones of the two lovers can still be found in the murky depths of the cave.

Kaala will be a mini print available at APE this weekend. I still have a bit more to do before then, so I will be posting more details this week. I am also hoping to open an Etsy shop soon for those of you who can't make it to APE, so stay tuned!

Hina

Hina is the Hawaiian goddess of the moon, death, and rebirth. One particular legend that I enjoy is that Hina lived in the sea and was tired of her toilsome underwater existence, so she left the water and escaped to the moon. Another interesting story about Hina is that she is linked to the God Ku by the sun. Ku is in charge of the rising of the sun and the early hours of the day, and then he passes the sun on to Hina who sets it in the West. Pretty neat, huh?

Print #5 of 6 that will be available at APE next weekend. Ohmygoshihavesomuchtodo! Until next time, enjoy!

Kanaloa

Kanaloa is the Hawaiian god of the sea, and is a complimentary power to Kane. He is also the god of death and the Underworld, and teacher of magic. Fisherman pray to him for protection, but he cannot always be trusted.

This is #4 of my six Hawaiian gods and goddesses that will be available in print-form at APE next weekend. That's right, November 1st and 2nd... and I still have two more to go! I am most definitely running late...

Purrr-casso

This is my first piece for Purr-casso - gouche and collage on Canson paper. Artwork is due on Saturday, so I don't know how many more (if any) I will be able to get done before then. I do, however plan to sell mini prints of this piece at APE, and 100% of the proceeds from this print will be donated to the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society! So, you can either get a print at APE or hold out for the original which will go up for auction a week later. Take your pick - its all for a good cause!

Also, I'm posting this to IF this week because it is pretty late for me to be JUST STARTING with this stuff. I was way ahead of the game last year. I have a feeling that I will probably be posting quite a bit to Illustration Friday this week because I feel like everything I am working on right now is late, late, late. More to come soon...

A Few of My Favorite Things...

Mermaids, small happy fish, and blue paper packages tied up with strings :)

Since this illustration features a present wrapped in strings, and since it is a Holiday card and holidays are some of my favorite things, I think it is an appropriate entry for this week's Illustration Friday. It really is much too early to be thinking about Christmas, but after working on these cards for a week I just can't help it. Now that they are finished, though, I need to focus on more pressing matters...

like what to be for Halloween?!

This is my second and final Holiday card for APE! Off to the printer they go! Have a great week!

Holiday Card #1

Yep, its another mermaid. Surprised?

Ok, break time is over. Back to work. Happy weekend!

A Break from Ape: The Girls

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to get to see Spring Awakening for a second time. I saw the show in NYC just after Christmas this year with most of the original cast, and fell head-over-heels in love with it. I must confess, I am a musical theater geek, but this show is different from anything else I have ever seen. It is gritty and honest and beautiful and if you ever have a chance to see it, please do. The national tour of Spring Awakening will be in San Francisco for another week, so if you are in the area please go see it! The only warning I have is that there is a lot of mature content, so you may not want to take young children (or your mom - a painful mistake I have already made once) to see it.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with APE things and other projects that I should be working on, I decided to take a break and let this sketch out of my head. This is the original cast of girls from Spring Awakening singing "Mama Who Bore Me." Way back when, I had a quite a hard time deciding what my major in college would be. It was a toss-up between musical theater and animation, and animation ultimately won out because it had been my first love, because I thought it would be easier to "make it" in the animation world (hahaha), and because I knew that a career in animation would allow me to both perform and draw. I'm confident I made the right decision, but this show in particular made me miss being on stage. Since I can't be up there with them, I guess the next best thing I can do is draw them. And for all of you IFers out there, this sketched is "packed" with ridiculously talented young women.

Enjoy, and we will return next week with our regularly scheduled APE-in-progress programming :)