Waiting to Dance Canvas Print

Every year towards the end of May, the hula is celebrated at the Molokai Ka Hula Piko Festival (Molokai, the center of the dance). To the Hawaiian people, hula means something much deeper than a form of entertainment or a competition to gain reputation. It is their culture and ancient ways expressed in a dance that comes from within, from the center, the piko. The hula originated here on Molokai and every year I look forward to photographing my neighbors celebrating their culture.

I've lived in Hawaii since 2002, 1200 feet above sea level, on the small rural island of Moloka'i. It is very quiet here, with only about 7,400 residents. I appreciate the quiet life after spending 35 years as a commercial illustrator, senior art director and design director for major advertising agencies and design studios in Chicago, San Francisco and Palo Alto California. I've always loved cooking. In 2002 that love led me to a degree in the Culinary Arts just before moving to Hawaii. Since then I designed and built a house, worked in local restaurants, self-published three cookbooks, and took up photography as a hobby. Now retired, I spend most of my time developing recipes and photographing them, plus researching and writing...