Basalt, Wood

48” x 21” x 12”

This sculpture explores the complex histories which any given place may contain. It is both a celebration of life, and a memorial to those who are no longer with us. Each chiseled layer of basalt stone represents a wave on the ocean, a solid materialization of the sea’s pulse

The sculpture pays tribute to Laupāhoehoe Point, a beach park in my hometown on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and is a totem which commemorates both tragedy and joy. On one level, it memorializes the 24 people who lost their lives in the Laupahoehoe Point tsunami of 1946, but it also stands for my own fond childhood memories of the beach park.