THE ARTIFACTS OF BELONGING
Threading Through Time: Myth, Memory and the Human Story
Heidi Buscher’s current painting series is a lush and thoughtful examination of Hawaii’s past, present and future. The work balances portraiture with abstract mark making in works that portray a sense of spirituality, a sense of our humanity, and our connection to the people and places that came before us. While Hawaiian mythology anchors the work, Buscher gathers thousands of source materials; maps, patterns, fabrics, archival texts, hand written letters, and early contact Hawaiian and Polynesian imagery as visual threads to inspire, layer and fold into the work.
Click to Read Artist’s Statement about the Series
My inspiration as an artist comes from my fascination with mythology and storytelling as a connection to the people and places that came before us— people who are no longer with us. It is the feeling of both joy and loss in equal parts.
How can we be here and love as hard as we love, and then just be gone? This is the universal human experience: love and loss and the enormous heart-rending beauty of it all. This feeling is where the roots of the work are. The myths and stories connect us back through the generations and millennia of humanity. The stories are what remain.
I am particularly drawn to the myths and legends of Hawaii. While I am not Kanaka Maoli (native), I am a fourth generation kama‘aina. This is the only place I know as home; it is the place that connects, sustains and nourishes me. And these are the artifacts of belonging.
