Depicted here are Papa, Papahānaumokuakea, Haumea and Hina. Papahānaumokuākea is the union of two Hawaiian ancestors – Papahānaumoku and Wākea – who gave rise to the Hawaiian Archipelago, the taro plant, and the Hawaiian people. Papa represents the islands, and her hand (lima) is the foundation. Elevating above is the iwa bird.

With many different forms, smells, and kinolau, this oil painting illustrates the four akua: Kū, Lono, Kāne, and Kanaloa. They are synonymous with war and forests, peace and agriculture, light and fresh water, and the ocean and underworld.

Yellow is a reoccurring color through each image as we are all descendants of Kāne. There are also white strips going above and below to represent the mahina. This is a wāhine story.

Our ancestors understood that the deepest connection with the gods, with divinity, with the most powerful source of mana comes from darkness. Hina is the background as the moon, Kanaloa is represented in black as darkness, and each curve represents the 1,000 lines of the Kumulipo. What’s important in this painting is the ānuenue because it’s coming from the time of the gods who would leap from island to island on rainbows. Every ānuenue belongs to everybody, yet it is an individual experience. So, when we think about our connection with ‘āina, with every fabric of reality, everybody has their own rainbow. To me, it’s an example of augmented reality, like nature already showing us forms of augmented reality.

In this painting, one thing I really wanted to touch on is that we (Hawaiians) were able to attain a degree of pono. As Kumu John Osorio says, pono is profound equilibrium. When you’re quiet and humble, you can feel our ancestors. And when you listen, you can hear unbelievable truths. You can tune in to the frequency that your kūpuna are having conversations on.

The surfboard represents the point where humans and nature are unified. To interface with the wave, Hawaiians had to be able to attain a kind of stance. This is why Hawaiians are the origins of balance. The more in balance you are, the better you’re going to ride all the waves in life. To be as pili with the wave as possible, it’s my hypothesis that ali‘i would not wear their malo, ahu‘ula, mahi‘ole, or anything. They are naked. The only thing they are wearing is the board.

Red is the color of the priests, so priests utilized red to represent Akua. Yellow is the color of the chiefs, and it represents ‘āina. This is why red and yellow is very much associated with ali‘i colors.

Moving from abstraction into representationalism, the fourth panel depicts four monarchs who have a history in surfing: Kamehameha the Great, Queen Ka‘ahumanu, Prince Kūhiō, and Princess Ka‘iulani.

All of their maka, all of their eyes, are lined up – in this way as a continuum. It is through the maka, that we have this mo‘o continuity of mo‘okū‘auhau (your genealogy), mo‘olelo (your story), and mo‘opuna (grandchildren).

On the far left, we have the pō (darkness) representing everyone that we could not possibly represent. Kamehameha represents a changing of the tide. The Union Jack forms the upper part of the wave and the long-standing connection that we have with England.

That is why the world needs the story of our monarchy, just like our papa he‘enalu. The world needs to remember how to love and mālama people because it’s rooted in our monarchy.

Surfing hero: Rell Sunn, Buffalo Keaulana, Eddie Aikau, Duke Kahanamoku, Carissa Moore, Honolua Blomfield, Sunny Garcia, and Derek Ho.

At the bottom there is darkness as the foundation. Like the ānuenue panel, we see not just one sunset, but 100 or 1,000 sunsets. As we move into the future, the melemele of Kāne continues and the colors are becoming superimposed and becoming part of the cloud. This painting in on the edge of those who are kūpuna and those who are ‘aumakua. Our ancestors had a completely different understanding of what it means to be alive and not alive. In a Western sense, it’s very binary, but in a Hawaiian sense, it’s a lot more fluid.

I think that’s another wonderful gift we could give the world to say, “no build your cultures and try run away from death like trying to run away from darkness.” Darkness, death, there is nothing more natural. Love every sunset, every wave, every grain of sand.