I don’t consciously lean into my childhood in Hawai’i when I am asked to make Heavenly Parent art, it comes instinctively. When I think of home, I think of sun warmed guavas, the smell of ginger flowers in the rain, the color everything rusted and fading in the sun, the soul warming hugs from the aunties who smell like pikake perfume, and the place where question of “where’s your family from?” Is rarely a one word answer. I think Heaven must be at least in part just like that.
The title of this piece refers to a childhood experience anyone from the islands can relate to. Eating fruit fresh off of Tutu’s (grandma’s) tree. Now that grandma might not have literally been your grandma, but she was still Tutu and those guavas, mountain apples, or mangos were divine.
Drawing a parallel to the doctrine of Heavenly Parents, the fruit in Lehi’s vision represents the love of God. Love that was made manifest in the physical form of Christ. The fruit of our Heavenly Tutu’s, and Tutu Kane’s (Grandfather’s), tree.
A huge mahalo to the Tano Ohana for modeling for this piece! The love in the image is tangible because it is real.
And shout out to my mom’s guava tree for being both delicious and a great model.
Reproduced from the artists original artwork of mixed media on paper.