AKUA STUDIES

Size: 11” X 14”
Medium: Ink, Graphite and Color Pencil
2024

Akua Studies is an ongoing series of abstract sketch works that explore visual language through a Kanaka Maoli lens. Rooted in the practice of Indigenous abstraction, these studies investigate the interplay of shape, texture, color, contrast, and emphasis—not as purely formal concerns, but as pathways to cultural meaning.

Each sketch serves as both inquiry and offering. Through these works, I examine how visual elements can carry the presence of akua—divine forces and ancestral intelligences—and how contemporary forms can give voice to traditional knowledge systems. Rather than depict figures directly, these studies gesture toward the unseen: the rhythms of ceremony, the contours of land, the echoes of ancestral breath.

The Akua Studies form the foundation for larger works in painting, print, and mural. They are part of a broader effort to translate Indigenous ways of knowing into visual concepts that resonate across time and context.

THE PROCESS

The Akua Studies emerge through an iterative, hands-on process of visual exploration. Working across mediums—graphite, woodcut printing, paint, and mixed materials—I engage each study as a site of experimentation and refinement. These sketches are not preliminary in the conventional sense; rather, they function as visual thinking—where ideas are formed, tested, and transformed through making. Each study builds upon the last, with one gesture informing the next. As I work, I revisit earlier marks, adjust compositions, and allow new textures and patterns to surface. Through this evolving process, I explore how line, shape, and repetition might embody Indigenous knowledge—carrying the pulse of akua, the imprint of place, and the rhythm of cultural memory. The materials themselves become collaborators in this process. Graphite allows for nuance and control, while woodcut carving introduces resistance and tactility. Layering paint and printed form adds depth and resonance, revealing hidden relationships between surface and meaning. Ultimately, the process of making becomes a method of translation—an Indigenous visual language taking shape, one mark at a time.