After a brief
singing career off island in 1971, I ricocheted home to Maui. Disillusioned
with the nightlife, I felt like I had been dumped on shore by a south
swell. I appreciated Maui just a little bit more than when I left
it.
I then established
a career in visual arts for 30 years, working in various mediums of
wax, fabric, canvas and paper. I am featured in the 1985 publication,
Artists of Maui, published by Wirtz Publications. My work displayed
in Art Maui and Hawaii Craftsmen shows.
During 20 of
those years, I was active on Maui's stage theaters and received awards
for acting. I performed a one woman play in 1998, One Maui Story,
written by Ron Youngblood. I felt that if I accomplished that, I could
do anything.
For community service, I served on many boards including the Maui
Historical Society, Hawaii Council for Humanities (a state council
for the National Endowment for Humanities), and chaired the Maui County
Cultural Resources Commission in my last year as a commissioner.
In my late 40's,
I reentered college at the University of Hawaii and graduated with
a BALIBARTS focusing in Human Relations. At age 50, writing became
my choice of expression. I was awarded the Lena Chang scholarship
from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in Santa Barbara, California
in 2000 for an essay about maintaining peace in the Nuclear Age. I
published in Succeed Magazine, The Maui News, MCC Journal. My
memoir, Spirit of the Village, was self-published in August
2006. An excerpt from the memoir was published in Rosebud Literary
Magazine in August, 2005.
I graduated from
Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English with a Masters Degree
in English in the summer of 2004 at Lincoln College, Oxford, England.
I attended Bread Loaf campuses in Middlebury, Vermont, Santa Fe, New
Mexico, Juneau, Alaska and two summers in England.
I reside in Kihei
where gardening, cooking, yoga and hula gives me pleasure.
Whenever I can,
I give workshops in autobiographical writing. Check classes
for dates. For a living, I maintain maui
condo rentals websites. A few times a week, I schedule myself
"out" to write or paint.
Writeonmaui.com
is a result of my interminable presence in front of a computer screen.
My next book
is a novel that takes place on Maui.
Photo credit
on Front Cover: Primitivo Rodrigues
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico, D.F.
Write On Maui ezine publishes
quarterly. Go to: http://writeonmaui.com for
issues.