Artist Statement
Jon Apisa
As art evokes each person to an individual experience, each work of art I create also connects artist and viewer.
I was raised in Hawaiʻi with a mixed heritage including ʻāiga Sāmoa (Sāmoan family) with values of agānuʻu Sāmoa (Sāmoan culture).
My heritage is the foundation for my life long interest and learning of Sāmoan, Hawaiʻian and Polynesian art & culture.
This includes material culture in addition to the environment, animals and plants of cultural value.
From this foundation, I create and share my perspective of Polynesian culture and heritage with Pacific Island art.
It is my intention that my art will interconnect the viewer through me, (and more importantly) to the foundation of my art with the culture of Pacific Islands and Pacific Island people.
My art, foundation, intention and the viewer will then be connected in a figurative form much like the ʻie tōga (fine mat) in which we are all interwoven elements.