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 HULA PELE
Hula Pele and a wall hanging of the Hawiian Islands- a finely crafted museum quality collectors piece.
Tribute to the volcano fire goddess Pele of the Hawaiian Islands.
Finely crafted art dedicated to the Hawaiian goddess Pele and the ancient hula.
Contemporary fine art figurative sculpture interpretation of the hula to the goddess Pele.
Authentic tatoos, hula dancer, modern artwork figure sculpted from cloth.
Sculpted hands against the quilt background of Hula Pele, Fine art collectible Hula Pele - a museum quality fabric sculpture and wall hanging. Missionary boats and an end to the ancient Hula - this collectible artwork by Jane Darin. Tattoos derived from the ancient Polynesian in this finely sculpted artwork by Jane Darin.
Polynesian descendant dancing the hula - a gallery quality art piece.
In traveling to the Hawaiian Islands, my favorite island (like choosing your favorite fudge when all of them are great) is the big island of Hawaii for it's great contrasts and space. Is your favorite island Maui? Maybe Kauai stole your heart.

 

   
Seeing Jane Darin's dolls is like walking through someone's dream." So began a remarkable conversation with Lisa Lichtenfels, chairperson of the National Institute of American Doll Artists (NIADA) Standards Committee, who met Darin at a NIADA one-on-one critique in 1997. "She brought two doll dioramas that so blew me away. I could barely ask her what she wanted to accomplish," Lichtenfels recalls. "I think of her vignettes as being composed of three parts: the figures, their environment and the story behind them. Her work is really performance art-and I thought, 'I've never seen anything like this'. So, instead of giving advice, I sat back and listened for two hours."
   from Dolls Magazine article by Wendy Lavitt, March/April 1998
   

 MATERIALS
  • Size: figure is 20" tall; the over all sculpture is 12.5" x 12.5" x 23" 
  • Wall hanging: 36" x 40" hand-dyed fabric, batiks, machine pieced, machine quilted
  • Face: needle sculpted Swiss pima cotton knit, hand dyed and hand painted
  • Materials: cloth, leather leis, fabric covered metal rings; the tattoo is ink drawn on cloth
  • Base: linoleum tile, stained wood
  • Series: Work is Worship
  • Hair: mohair

 STORY

I had an unusual experience on my first trip to Hawaii, the big island. I felt as if I had come home. In a museum the curator asked me if I was Hawaiian and showed me a picture in an album of a queen that he thought resembled me. Then he showed me the exact chair in which she sat for the picture and it was huge. I began to read about the ancient Hawaiians. I could just imagine dancing to the goddess Pele.

Another in my  "Work as Worship" series, this is an authentic Hawaiian dancer of the ancient hula. On a recent trip to Kauai, I learned that a school had been formed to study and recreate the ancient hula dances. Since the early people of the islands had no written language, the real hula has been lost. 
  
Before the arrival of the haoles (white people represented in the wall hanging by the boats, made from Hawaiian newsprint fabric.), the early Hawaiians expressed their joy of life through the ancient hula, performed with rhythm and chant. Pele was the goddess of the volcano. If a dancer wore red bark cloth, she danced for Pele. I learned that there were two schools of dancers, one for men and one for women. If you had a new baby, for example, you would invite the hula dancers for the celebration and they would dance and chant to bring the blessings of the Gods and Goddesses on the child. Or wedding. Or household. 

The face, head bangles, tattoos and leis are all authentic and taken from antique photos.