This series draws from the ʻōlelo noʻeau “He noio, ʻā‘e ʻale no ke kai loa” — “Like the noio bird, skimming the far-reaching waves.” The noio, a native Hawaiian seabird, is known for its precision and its ability to travel great distances by reading subtle changes in wind, current, and sea. In Hawaiian thought, it represents excellence that comes not from force or speed, but from attentiveness, experience, and the ability to remain oriented in uncertain conditions.

The work uses the figure of the noio not as illustration, but as a way to think through a practice of seeing. Through layered materials, gestural marks, and recurring bird forms, the series explores how small signals are noticed, how course is adjusted, and how direction is maintained over time. The artwork makes visible a process of discernment — sensing change, responding carefully, and moving forward without losing orientation.

In this sense, the series functions as a visual inquiry. It asks how clarity emerges when attention is sustained, how judgment develops through experience, and how excellence is practiced rather than claimed. The work is less concerned with representing a bird than with communicating the discipline behind its movement.

This way of working extends beyond the studio. The same principles inform my teaching, consulting, and collaborative practice, where the challenge is often not the absence of information, but the difficulty of seeing clearly within complexity. The work offers a way to slow perception, surface underlying conditions, and respond with intention rather than reaction.

Manu Ula is therefore not an endpoint, but a lens — a means of understanding how discernment, care, and orientation operate across creative, organizational, and cultural contexts. It invites viewers to reflect on how they read conditions, adjust course, and maintain direction in their own work