Monica Perreira: Molokai Artist

June 02, 2011 - July 01, 2011
Academy Art Center at Linekona

Exhibition Overview

Artist's Statement:

I was born in 1937 in Hawai‘i on the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai. I still consider Kalaupapa my home.

Because both my parents had Hansen's Disease I was taken from them as an infant and sent to O‘ahu where I lived with my mother's sister and my cousin Carl.

I wish I could have met Father Damien. I have visited his church and grave at Kalaupapa.

After WWII, my auntie moved to the U.S. mainland and I was sent to live at Waimano Home Training School and Hospital as an orphan.

My interest as an artist began at Waimano Home as a teenager. I started by illustrating radio soap operas. Among my favorites were cooking shows in the 1950s.

My illustrations are now cartoon drawings of cats, dogs living as humans. I enjoy creating landscapes with houses.

My whole life I have been an artist and for the last five years VSA arts-HI has helped me become a professionally known artist, which had always been my goal to sell my artwork.