No Rain, No Rainbow

Inspired by traditional Pacific designs, I created this painting with a triangular grid undergirding the composition.

The triangle often symbolically represents the connection between the land, ocean, sky. Canoe sails, rows of shark teeth, and spear tips are folded into potential meanings alluding to strength, connection, and adaptability.

Drawings of staples like pineapple and breadfruit reference the land. Breadfruit quilt patterns also add nuance throughout the painting.

Textured elements I imbedded using carved bamboo ohe kapala stamps. These would ordinarily adorn kapa cloth. They echo the triangles on a much smaller scale.

Large diagonals might be masts or sugarcane. Blue and white areas of the painting suggest ocean and sky elements.

The title No Rain, No Rainbow is a Hawaiian Pidgin saying which means when you are going through difficult things (rain) good things often follow (rainbows) and in fact can’t happen without those difficult events.

It is a worldview that acknowledges cycles and can encompass ambiguity enough to accept all life as a gift.

No Rain, No Rainbow (48” x48” mixed media on board) is available at Viewpoints Gallery in Makawao, Maui.

This was written entirely by Sarah Taylor Ko without the aid of any sort of AI. NO AI TRAINING: without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this blog to train generative intelligence (AI) technologies or generate text is expressly prohibited.

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