Fired at University of Hawai`i Maui College.

cinnamon red and midnight blue glaze, dipped, built

A year after I moved to Maui and became divorced, I discovered Nichiren Buddhism. Spending twelve years studying and praying Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (power of the mystic law) I learned about how a huge part of this philosophy focuses on the power of positive thinking. Nichiren Buddhists can turn any negative into a positive and believe that all people have the potential to become enlightened in this lifetime! Nichiren Buddhists, although using no idolatry of any kind like statues of Buddha, as we believe that we all have "Buddha-nature" inside each one us, use the symbol of the lotus flower to show that from the mud lives and grows the exquisite lotus flower. My own twist on this philosophy has the snake signifying that the anti-venom is derived from the venom. Why would I do that you might wonder? During my tender years, before my life-saving kidney operation when I was seven years-old on Valentine's Day, 1977, I always had night terrors of snakes and spiders hatching out of millions of eggs all around me in every direction. Sometimes the snakes and spiders were as big as a building. Christians and other religions believe the symbology of the snake represents the going against god. Nothing could be further from the truth in my work. The snake is not god's fallen angel in my dreams or in my world, but quite the contrary. I learned later in life that shamans and other spiritualists call these visions, from my dreams, "initiation."

The terrifying images of snakes and spiders completely disappeared from my dreams after the surgery was successful! As I became ill again in my thirties, the nightmares returned. Rather than seek therapy, I discovered shamanism and studied consciousness and dream interpretation. The next ten years of shamanistic study, travel, and practice is what preceded a serendipitous finding of Nichiren Buddhism. Like many people who have suffered themselves, mentally or physically, they learn most about elixirs to help heal themselves. For me, that elixir is art.

The shaman builds bridges between the real and ideal, the unconscious and conscious, truth and illusion, dark and light, dream and reality, and are in total sync with their environments, particularly animals and nature or dreaming. My entire life I've sought to understand the purpose of suffering and the paths to joy. The snake represents making the best out of the worst situation. That is part of what my art is intended to do, and does unfailingly! It is also an underlying theme for the book I'm writing.

mint green & turquoise glaze, dipped, sponged, wheel turned

oasis blue, turquoise, midnight blue glazes