Ke’e Beach

 Price:  $1300
Size:  20 x 20
Description:
They say there is a curse on those who take stones from the Hawaiian islands.  The is even a pile of stones I am told in some of the post offices from vacationers who sent back the stones they took home.  Knowing that taking stones from the island was probably not a good thing to do I wasn’t planning on bringing stones home.  However, the island had another plan for me.
As I traveled around Kauai there were three times I was told to take stones home.  One of them happened on Ke’e Beach.  I was sitting under a tree looking out at the beautiful ocean.   As I looked around I saw seed pods on the sand at my feet.  I gathered some up and went up to the Life Guard to find out if he knew the name of the tree.  He told me the name of the tree and proceeded to tell me that the tree wasn’t native to the island.  Natives didn’t like the tree because it was taking over the natural vegetation.  Since they weren’t rocks I felt that I could take the seeds home and started to imagine them as fish instead of seeds.  As I sat pondering how to paint them my eyes were drawn to three rocks at my feet.  I felt/heard inside that if I told the story about the tree that was invading Kauai that I could also take home the three rocks at my feet.
Before I started painting the picture that included the rocks and the seed pods I researched the tree.  My research showed me that the Life Guard must have gotten the name of the tree wrong.  There was no such tree.  He was a young man and probably more into surfing than plants.  However, in my research I found several non-indigenous trees and plants that were causing trouble on the island.  As is often the case when people bring in outside plants and animals they become a nuisance.  They start to overtake the natural vegetation.  I know that the Island of Kauai is not happy about being invaded.  It told me on three separate occasions that the land was unhappy.  It is unhappy with people, stones and plants that don’t belong there.  If feels invaded.  Unfortunately I never did find out what tree the seed pods came from.  None of the trees I researched had pods that looked like the ones I brought home.  But the story of invasion was important to tell.  I kept my word.  The rocks are happy.  I am happy there is no curse on them.