Hana Yoshihata, born in Kealakekua on Hawaiʻi Island, collaborates with coastal and deep sea water to create paintings that evoke and honor the ocean, cosmos, and the legacy of canoe voyaging throughout the Pacific. Her experiences voyaging on traditional Polynesain canoes Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia throughout Hawaiʻi and abroad serve as the greatest inspiration for her work. By incorporating waters gathered from around the world, Hana creates paintings that are both conceptually and materially tied to voyaging, while exploring our intrinsic human connections to the sky, sea, and earth. Since completing a BFA with distinction at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2016, she has exhibited a solo show with the Honolulu Museum of Art, has multiple pieces in the Hawaii State Art Museum’s Art in Public Places collection, and continues to voyage.
Working on sheets of heavy watercolor paper placed flat on the floor, mixtures of ocean waters, acrylic pigments and ink are allowed to flow, mix and dry freely across the surface. This process welcomes the elemental influence of the ocean by changing and eroding pigments, alluding to its power in transforming larger environments and landscapes, and resulting in pieces that are ultimately shaped by the sea.