If only houses could talk. Auntie Gloria had a penchant for boisterous parties. The residents of Kalaupapa live in a unique, protected community on a remote peninsula jutting out from the tallest sea cliffs in the world on Moloka’i in Hawaii. The painting shows Auntie Gloria’s house with graves in the yard at sunset and a cheerful light emanating from the windows, celebrating the depth of the human spirit in life and death.

Every afternoon at the same time Auntie Gloria climbed in her rusty old pick-up to drive to familiar street corners where of stray cats lounged around waiting for her to feed them.

Everyone new to stay off the road during Auntie’s forays. She used the grassy edges of the road to determine when she left the pavement, because even though she was fully blind, the cats depended on her. The former Leprosy colony started as a place of exile where lawlessness and cruelty reigned. Eventually, Catholic priests and nuns built hospitals, schools and churches. Other health workers followed and a number of historic churches remain. Humanity redefined the settlement, Hansen’s disease survivors won the right to stay and the residents lived by their own gentle rules, including allowing a blind woman to drive on public roads to feed her cats.

To this day the stray cats are still regularly fed, they wait patiently on the intersections where Auntie Gloria used to find them.

To purchase a print of this painting please write to me at clbnyart@gmail.com for a price list that includes the sizes available. The original was sold.