My parents had gone to Hawaii some time before I was born, so they had some keepsakes in the house, and one of them was the utterly beautiful poster; an illustration of Pele the Goddess of fire and volcanoes. In the picture, the waves and curls of her hair turn into molten lava. Her eyes are smoldering. She looks very powerful, but somehow I never thought of the picture as something scary. Sure, I knew fire could be dangerous and destructive, but to me it was also comforting. When we can’t see at night we can light a candle, when we need to cook our food we use flames, and when we are cold we build a fire to keep warm. This poster was under the coocoo clock in the hallway for most of my childhood (my parents made the mistake of showing me how if you pushed the clock hands around the face, you could make the little bird come out and softly call “Coo-Coo Coo-Coo” whenever you wanted. obviously I did that a lot, so that clock never told the correct time). It was familiar and fascinating. I came across the poster again, set aside is a safe place, and I noticed the artist name (I never bothered to look because for a long time I couldn’t even read, but I could stare at the beautiful picture). His name was Herb Kawainui Kāne, and when I looked him up I found out he’s a major part of Hawaii’s cultural renaissance during the 70s. He passed away in 2011, and had created so many amazing works of art in his life. If any of that holds an interest for you, look up his work sometime (you might even find the Pele poster)
