my thesis exhibition: 'Aha'aina

My show and my paper are finally done.  Strange feeling, not to be staying up at night stressing about some detail that I can't get to until tomorrow.  After changing my mind about what I wanted to do many many times and avoiding the topic I most wanted to talk about for a long time--culture, I was finally able to find a focus I could work with.  Thank you everyone who helped me get this done - mom and dad and Noke especially.



my artist statement:

Defining my own cultural identity is complicated by my alternating environment.   My cultural diversity compels me to scrutinize my cultural surroundings and how they affect my identity.  I am satisfied that my identity will always be unresolved.

‘Aha’aina is the term that preceded the word Luau as the definition of a Hawaiian feast.  The diverse and variegated aspect of the Luau reflects my own diverse and variegated self/cultural identity.  My cultural identity connects me to this setting and its origins and here I use it as a metaphor for the cultural diversity I have inherited and must navigate.  Literally meaning “gathering to eat”, ‘Aha’aina is the place where a diverse narrative of people, history and custom combine to form an environment where identity can be examined. 

The show consisted of 24 oil paintings on 12"x12" panels, 24 ceramic sculptures of clamshell style styrofoam plates, and an 18' table.

cool sticker sign

complete installation

paintings...

plate sculptures and banquet table...

Amalani today

So I started this blog so that I could record the beginnings of our family and all the stuff that Amalani won't remember about this part of her life - and I have done a pretty bad job.  I just want to write down a few of my favorite things about her today before they change again.

Amalani is 20 months old.  She still weighs 23 lbs (been the same for several months) and seems small because I'm used to seeing her with her cousins.  I think she, Reagan, and Maddison all weigh about the same and Reagan is 1 year and Maddison is 10 months.  I feel like I offer her food all day every day but she is too active to keep any of it on.  She is on hyper mode from the moment she wakes up until pretty late at night when she finally falls asleep.  There's usually no winding down process either.  She's wide awake climbing up the windowsill to jump onto the couch and then suddenly she's out.

Here's some of her most recent little habits:

-She loves to group hug so she'll grab Noke's neck and my neck and squeeze our three heads together.
-When it's bedtime I sing Primary songs to her and tickle her legs and feet.  She just started singing back to me and tickling me so that now we're taking turns.  She's better at putting me to sleep than I am at putting her to sleep.
-When she's fake-crying I catch her walking over to the mirror to see what she looks like.
-She is into keys and always needs to be the one to unlock the car door or the door to the house.
-Her favorite Youtube video is You Gotta Hold on Me with Smokey Robinson and a huge letter "U" puppet.
-She loves to say prayer.  When we tell her "lotu" she kneels down and squints her eyes half shut and mumbles long sentences with deep breaths in between then says "AMEN!" and starts clapping for herself.
-We have a random Tongan music mix CD in the car and she loves to sing along and bob her head. 
-She LOVES to dance.  If she can hear music she's dancing.  (Or if she's eating something she really likes).  She loves going to dances too and is usually shy when we first get there.  As soon as she's warmed up though she won't get off the dance floor and is sweaty by the time I drag her off.
-She wants to high-five, shake hands and 'pound it' with EVERYONE.
-She love bubbles.
-She loves going to the grocery store and always wants to push the cart without our help.  She grabs the bar that is about 18 inches off the ground and runs for it.  We have to be sneaky about helping her steer.  
-To her, every animal makes a growling sound.  We look though books and I'll quack for the duck and ribbet for the frog and neigh for the horse...Amalani just growls back at me.  Same thing when she sees animals in person.
-She says please and thank you but "please" usually comes out after she's screamed "MOM, MOM, MOM, MOM" and then there's a big cheesy smile with her head tilted to the side and a sweet "pweeee" (please).
-Her favorite shoes are her blue galoshes from Hawaii.
-She really doesn't like to be sticky or dirty and will run to me with her hands out so that I can clean them if her food has made a mess.
-She wants to help with everything I do around the house.  She helps me put dishes away, she pushes the vacuum, she has her own little broom and dustpan that she helps me sweep with.  She is so excited when I let her help, especially with cooking and stirring.
-And, like most kids I know that are her age, she's obsessed with toothbrushes and I find her walking around the house with a toothbrush and toothpaste several times everyday.

That's all I can think of for now.  Love my little girl.
I haven't taken pictures of her in a while either so here are some pics from our family barbecue yesterday. They're not the greatest but they are pictures...

Friday night at Golden Corral

I've never been a real big fan of the buffet restaurant.  Being married to Noke has definitely started to warm me up to the idea though.  I've eaten more buffet in the last two and a half years than the rest of my life combined I think.  And tonight was another one of those nights.  We're usually pretty loyal to Chuck A Rama but tonight Noke treated us to Golden Corral for the first time.  I've avoided it until now because I didn't think I wanted to consume food in a corral.  But I have to admit, the food was good.  More variety and flavor than Chucks - and I like Chucks.  And it passed the Amalani test.  She is usually very picky or completely uninterested in eating in a restaurant but she grinded tonight.  I also enjoyed the people watching experience part of tonight. There are:

-the people who are on a mission to get full before everyone else
          sometimes they eat in line (the buffet lines move slowly so they eat - not just nibble or sample, EAT  
                  -  so as to not waste time just standing)
          sometimes they cut in line (with elbows even, and so shamelessly that I almost cracked up a couple      
                  of times)
          sometimes they stand behind you in line with their plate firmly pressed into your back (good idea
                  now that I think of it - no room for cutters)
-the people who are trying to avoid the end of the meal by pacing themselves (the table is cleared, they sip
                  water, chat, lean back in their chairs, then 15 minutes later are back with a plate of steak and
                  fries)
-the people in large parties (extended families, senior citizens, college students)
-the people eating in a booth by themselves (must be there for the people watching too)
-the people who have rowdy kids (we fall into this category - well, we have one rowdy kid)
          no one will judge you if your kids are noisy/messy/fussy or more interested in the people and food
          at the next table than their own, or if they want to make their own soft serve sundae's all night
          without adult supervision
-the people who weren't able to change out of their pajamas today
-the people who recognize what a special dining experience this is and get super dressed up to eat there
-the people who hover by the chocolate fondue fountain (I finally had to resort to cutting in line to get
          a taste)
-the people there for the daily special (tonight it was seafood and there was plenty to go around so no
          one stops you from piling your plate as high as it will go)

Will we eat there again? Yes!  But probably not on a Friday night in Provo - we should have seen the crowd coming.  Pretty intense.