Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawaii has been "actively-active" since 1983. It’s in the news today because it’s created a new path of eruption, disrupting lives and claiming homes.

I first experienced the majesty of Kilauea in January 2000, during my first trip to the islands.

I painted this oil of my friend Kit at the volcano after that first trip.

Watching lava move across the land is like watching an otherworldly life force. The energy is palpable, HOT, magical, and very, VERY alive.

Pele in "She Walks the Earth"

Five volcanoes make up the big island of Hawaii. Kilauea is the busiest of the three active volcanoes.

You might wonder why anyone lives on or near an active volcano. The answer is not as simple as you might think.

Pele as "Birth of an Island"

The islands have been inhabited for about 1,500 years. (Westerners first arrived about 240 years ago; we’re the “newbies”.)

Generations of families have grown up on all of the islands. This is HOME to them. This is not their first rodeo — or their first volcano-induced evacuation.

You might as well wonder why people live in northern climates of WI or Canada or the heat and bugs of the Deep South or even in North Korea.

We are people of the lands that call to us, that welcome us, the lands that we know and love; often the lands where we grow up.

The people living on Hawaii Island have a strong, sincere reverence for the land and the sea they call home.

Time and again I’ve heard those displaced by the volcano accept their fate with dignity, faith, and an understanding that most would find astonishing.

"Pono"

Most indigenous cultures understand that the land doesn’t really belong to us.

Madam Pele (the goddess of the volcano) shows her hand by continuing to create this land before our very eyes and in our midst. She has exclusive rights and we must accept her creative whims.

The Art of Aloha Creative Cruise this August will stop in Hilo for a day before sailing around the southern tip of Hawaii Island to dock in Kona the next day.

Pele claimed most of the southern tip of Hawaii Island awhile back. Those of us on the cruise were hoping to see her spill into the ocean there. None of us want to see homes ravaged by lava.

We have room for two more people on this very special island cruise. If the islands are calling to you, please act today! Click HERE

I promise a trip you’ll always remember.
The Spirit of the Land is tangible here.

If you want an infusion of creativity and trust that we will continue to survive and even thrive during any upheaval in life, this trip is for you!

I attended two SARK retreats in June, one in Portland and another in Carmel. I felt joy and excitement before and during both of these retreats.

During the past nine months, I attended all of the online classes and in-person retreats. I filled two journals with notes and began shifting the ways in which I create my world.

I felt great, focused and excited about the process everyday … until I didn’t.

Anxiety rose up to meet me a week before the final retreat in Portland. I was shocked this was totally unexpected!

I turned to my watercolor paper and painted my anxiety while teaching my Hide-N-Seek painting method at a “Playshop” for the Hawai`i Watercolor Society on September 30th.

The painting began horizontally.

As my left arm circled the brush round and round, my right arm made the infinity symbol with the brush moving from left to right and back again. All the while I verbally and visually explained my inner feelings.

My left hand described my frustration with going over the same learning cycle, again and again, feeling stuck, seeing the same issues rising up over and over in my mind. (Remember the Onion from the last post?)

At the same time, my right hand explained my desire to break free of this cycle.

Step two of this painting process is the removal of texture, revealing the underpainting. It was then that a heart appeared, and I knew this painting would be vertical.

On the second day of the final SARK retreat, I watched in awe as Dr. Scott Mills drew out the exact structure of my fresh underpainting on the flip chart for the class.

Scott explained that it’s easy to get stuck in the seductive loop of learning and that it’s essential to break free from that loop so we do the work we’ve come here to do.

We need to use all of our learning
or we’re wasting everyone’s time.

Learning and Doing are parts of the infinity loop. One side feeds the other. If we get stuck on either side, we’re out of balance.

I’m committed to learn and evolve throughout the whole of my life. Now I have more tools with which to do my internal excavation.

The deeper I dig, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more questions I have and the more potential and possibility I find. And the more I have to give and share with others.

The world appears to be “out there”. Yet the VAST majority of it lies “in here” — within and for all of us.

That’s why I’m inviting you to join me for my first ever 7-Day Creative Cruise through the Hawaiian Islands, August 4–11, 2018.

Together we will Discover Paradise Inside and Out.

The official pre-launch is in December. Find out first by sending an email to me: Patrice@artofaloha.com. Please put cruise in the subject line so I’m sure to respond quickly.

I’ll share with you the processes I know to dig down deeper within and outside our selves, to hunt for and find the clues being left for us by our Inner Wise Selves.

Together we’ll discover new vistas,
both within ourselves and throughout the world.