Working on 'Route 66 with Curry'. Started with reference to current truck-stops where you can fill your stomach with asian Indian food and your truck with diesel. But, with these prints its also about legends. Don't you think?

#52. 'Ming Ho / Munn Haw (Beatrice)'. 77" x 77". Chinese brush painting, Japanese folklore, and Hawaiian flora designs. I knew mom as 'Beatrice' all my life. In helping her get a state ID I found she was born 'Munn Haw' but changed her Cantonese name to Mandarin 'Ming Ho' when she married. 'Beatrice' was given to her because the school teachers couldn't handle other than English names. (Hawaii in the 1920's.) NFS

Inspired by Li Huayi at the Honolulu Art Museum. It was serendipitious to find this cloth printed with a Chinese landscape design waiting for me back home. It was printed in Honolulu. You can see little figures in the print if you look closely.

'Munn Haw' & 'Ming Ho' translate to Day-Night or Sun-Moon, meaning 'Bright'. Add the character 'River' and it reads as Bright River, ie the Milky Way. 

Ming Ho

Munn Haw

A new member of Woman Made Gallery. See link below.

https://womanmade.org/artwork/betty-jane-lau-2/

Opening at Women Made Gallery 11.1.2019

#38. 'Hansel & Gretel in American Woods' 2018.1 49" x 49" American cloth, Aloha print, Costco Indonesian sarong. 800.

 

Truth As A Contested Concept

https://womanmade.org/truth-as-a-contested-concept/

I was invited to participate by

curator and sculptor Indira Johnson.
'Woman Made Gallery', Chicago.

'Hansel and Gretel in American Woods' was chosen.

You can see all artists, statements and works on the website by clicking 'SEE THE WORK'.

Sattadhatu Sutta, SN 14.11

#51. 'Mauna Kea / Powehi' 51" x 46" Tutuvi prints and Hawaiian cloth NFS

During the blocking of TMT ( a proposed new telescope) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii; I wove this two sided piece. I considered changing the name to 'Gran Canaria / Black Hole'. Gran Canaria being the telescope if built on the secondary site of Spain's Canary Island. But no, this piece is about Mauna Kea. Ironically wild fires burn on the Canary Island this summer, while emotional fires burn in Hawaii.

What would Queen Liliuokalani do? Her islands were stolen in 1893. This is very much a part of the protest.

Working on #51 Mauna Kea / Powehi while controversy swirls.

#50. 'Powehi / Rainbow' 84" x 68" Made of hawaiian and western materials. Started 4/2019 - Finished 7/2019. Read links to find out more. 1,000.

'Kumulipo', a Hawaiian origin chant.

"The current of time when the earth turned hot around

The current of time when the firmament turned counter

The current of time when the sun stood beshadowed

To illuminate the moon

The time of the night of the Pleiades

The ocean-floor slime is what gave origin to earth

The origin of the dark was dark

The origin of the night was night

The deep darkness, the deep darkness

The darkness of the day, the darkness of the night

Night only indeed!..."

Copied from 'Chanting the Universe' by John Charlot, 1983.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/12/world/black-hole-name-powehi-scli-intl/index.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2019/07/18/why-some-native-hawaiians-are-protesting-construction-of-the-thirty-meter-telescope/#49c657b7112a                                               

#25 'American Childhood/Silkie' was chosen for a buyer based on his educating children, and having ties to Madison, WI. where this was displayed in a competition. It was serendipitous that the colors in this quilt goes so well with the room.

49. A commission for the wall space above a bed.

$400.00 

48. 'Powehi' (hawaiian word which means: "embellished dark source of unending creation". Named after the first Black Hole first photographed this year, 2019. Two of the eight telescopes used to photograph the black hole are on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. 13.5 x 13.5 2019.4 Aloha print border, linen, synthetics, knits, Japanese brocade, Chinese silk. Given to UU sangha (Mindful Reflection Community) for their meditation candle.

47. 'American Dream / American Nightmare'. 2019.3 @ 64" x 69" American cloths. 1,000.

The dream of an immigrant can easily turn into a nightmare. Dorothy arrives in a strange new land full of hope and plans: it can turn ghastly wrong. Fierce eagles remind me of the not friendly flying monkeys on the Wizard of Oz. Foreboding black bunting surround all. One side is full of color, the other side is ghostly pale.

Turning the woven "quilts"; just like flipping Beatles 45s from A to B sides.

These 'A' sides, will be flipped to the 'B' sides for the last 5 days of 'It Takes a Village' at Oak Park Public Library. Saturday March 23, at 1:00.

'It Takes a Village' at the Oak Park Public Library opening and 5 pieces not previously shown.

side A

side B

side A

side B

side A

side B

side A

side B

#46. Lauhala / Ha'uke'uke (when the hala is ripe the sea urchin is fat) 2019.1 67.5 x 67.5 dry clean. 800.

See Mar 10 2019 'It Takes a Village' post for professional photos and closeups.

Oak Park Library gallery in March 2019. Challenge is how to display both sides of the weaving without hanging from ceiling, or drilling into the wall for shelf brackets, as I have done previously.