The Hollow Compasses • AGE 6
(oil pastel on paper; 14” x 20”)
The Empathy • AGE 6
(oil pastel on paper; 12” x 18”)
The Life • AGE 6
(oil pastel on paper; 9.5” x 12”)
The Rainbow River AGE 6
(oil pastel on paper; 30” x 36”)
The Growth (self-portrait) AGE 6
(oil pastel on paper; 30” x 36”)
The Waiting • AGE 6
(oil pastel on paper; 30” x 36”)
The Raking • AGE 6
(oil pastel on paper; 30” x 36”)
Again I Find the Winter • AGE 7
(acrylic on canvas; 18” x 24”)
When I was seven, we had one accident and illness after another in our family—and once we even got lost in the Colorado Mountains. I was so car sick from all the switchbacks, but then I saw a lake through the trees. When we finally found our way back home, I knew what my first acrylic painting would be.
The Footsteps of Spring • AGE 7
(acrylic on canvas; 20” x 30”)
The Dreamfence • AGE 7
(acrylic on canvas; 26” x 36”)
When I was seven, a neighbor gave us a strawberry-red kitten. We called him Charlie. But after a month, due to my father’s and my baby brother’s severe allergies, we had to find another home for our kitty.
The Horse • AGE 7
(acrylic on board; 22” x 34”)
One day on a farm, I saw one horse. I don’t know why it appeared funny to me at that time.
The Eagle • AGE 7
(acrylic on board; 9” x 12”)
Each • AGE 7
(acrylic on canvas; 18” x 24”)
My father was injured and without a job, my baby brother was very sick, my mom was homeschooling us four children, and we were very poor. I was seven and stubborn. I wanted to paint, but we had no money for paints or canvases. I found in the garage a small canvas and two semi-empty pails of paint—one white, the other burnt umber. I painted this landscape to show how each day is important, whether we are rich or poor, sad or happy, because we grow from all our experiences. Right after finishing this painting, I decided to teach small children art to raise money for my art supplies.
Strength • AGE 7 (acrylic on canvas; 30” x 40”)
Color Sketches, and Expressionistic paintings
The paintings on this page are studies of various subjects created in one sitting.
The Clematis Dream • AGE 8 (Oil on canvas; 36” x 48”)
In the Japanese garden in our backyard, I noticed one clematis flower that seemed to be floating in the air. The next morning I woke up from a strange dream, wrote it down with a chalk on the window, and began painting the blossom.
Listening • AGE 8 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
The orange is the color of listening, I was hoping to create an allegory about listening with this attentive tiger—a portrait representing the noble leaders who listen to the needs of their “jungle.”
Life Without a Leash • AGE 8 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
From the time we first got our golden retriever, Simba, he’s always been so loyal and brave. And with those begging eyes, he knows very well how to get from me anything he wants. One day when I picked out the four-foot-long canvas at the art supply store, I knew I wanted to paint him twice his real size. And that’s how he seemed to me every day: big-hearted. It was my first huge painting and one of the easiest to paint. When he saw himself, he licked the corner of the canvas, as if to show me where I should sign—and that’s when I decided the painting was finished.
The Planted Eyes AGE 8
(Oil on canvas; 36” x 48”)
In THE PLANTED EYES I wanted to express the beauty and the suffering of the black race. It was my first oil painting and the fastest portrait—taking me only fifteen hours from a sketch to the very end.
My Sight Cannot Wait for Me AGE 8
(acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
Akiane at work on Father Forgive Them.
Akiane painting her self-portrait.
Progression of Prince of Peace
Prince of Peace: The Resurrection • AGE 8 (oil on canvas; 36” x 48”)
Father Forgive Them • AGE 9 (oil on canvas; 48” x 60”)
The Summer Snow AGE 9
(acrylic on canvas; 26” x 46”)
The story of a hummingbird rescuing a flower from a summer snow was created in a few days after a hail like snow crushed all our flowers in the garden. As one hummingbird was still circling around the most beautiful blossom, I immediately ran to my studio and grabbed my brush to play with my paints.
Faith • AGE 9 (oil on canvas; 54” x 54”)
Without you I cannot be what I want to be
and without me I cannot be what you want me to be…
Tied up to a board and thrown out to die on the dirt road in China, this baby girl was crying for days before she was found. When I met her a year later, I knew at once that I would dedicate her story to all the abandoned children.
The Evening Swan • AGE 9 (acrylic on canvas; 54” x 54”)
The Dance of the Mind Inside the White • AGE 9 (oil on canvas; 25” x 25”)
It seemed as if I painted these flowers in one breath and in one brushstroke. The oils were flowing and blending so fast until I was stopped, “Don’t touch me anymore. Enough.”
Bald • AGE 9 (acrylic on canvas; 25” x 25”)
In one of my visions I saw an eagle flying through a huge city full of skyscrapers. But by the time I started painting the image, I could no longer remember the message.
The Freedom Horse • AGE 9 (acrylic on canvas; 30” x 40”)
When for the first time in my life I was invited to ride a horse on a farm, I felt such freedom! But then it occurred to me that the horse would feel free only without me on his back—somewhere in the wild. It reminded me about love: to truly love we have to be free . . . to truly appreciate love we have to be free when we choose right from wrong. We can be forced to obey, but we cannot be forced to love.
The Antlers • AGE 9 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
The twenty-four deer symbolize the time—the earthly cycle of twenty-four hours in each day. Peace among families and races is represented by an entire cycle of a deer’s life: from the rut and the birth up to an old age.
The Light-Bearers • AGE 9 (oil on canvas; 48” x 48”)
This painting is an allegory about five groups of human beings responding differently to Truth. When the light representing the Truth shines from above, only three groups notice it. One group admires it. The second gets angry. And the third group runs away from it.
Courage • AGE 9 (acrylic on canvas; 30” x 40”)
Crossing the bridge that is not even built is courage . . .
To me swans are always full of strength, grace, beauty, love, and courage. In my painting they represent people in the flight of love—the flight between people and races, the islands and the continents, the planets and galaxies is only for the brave. Maybe that’s how bridges are built—crossing by faith first.
Silence • AGE 9 (acrylic on canvas; 30” x 40”)
There is probably no such place as I painted here, but I wanted to show a scene that I’d envisioned in my mind for a long time. It’s more expressionistic than realistic, and that’s the way I wanted it to be left—a place where empty silence could also be mistaken, a place where through the sounds of nature you could hear a living silence.
The Journey • AGE 9 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
Found • AGE 9
(acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
I was inspired to paint all the races, but finding black people where I lived in Idaho was very difficult. After a long wait I finally met two African children whose story was so remarkable that I wanted to paint it right away. There was a taboo in their small Madagascar tribe against saving orphans, so after their parents died, the two children were taken into the jungle and left there to die. A two-year-old boy took care of his six-month-old sister for more than two months. When they were found, they were barely alive. After I invited the adoptive parents to look at the finished portrait, they cried. Everybody—including me—was surprised at the painted waterfalls in the background, because I had not known that the orphans had been found in the only waterfall jungle in Madagascar.
JeShUa— ThE . . . mIsSiNg . . . YeArS . . . • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
The Creation • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 48”)
The Connection • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
Communion, attention, and action is a true connection.
The Angel • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 48”)
The Power of Prayer • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
These birds, just like prayers seeking their destination, are flying toward the light. And unless they are humble, patient and trusting, they will not reach it. Some birds are distracted, others are playfully soaring, and still others are discouraged and turning back. Those that are terrified and lack the strength of faith crash against the steep mountains and drown in the river. The power of prayer is direction, humility, sincerity, and faith.
The Hourglass • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
The underwater light formed in the shape of the hourglass represents eternity. The bottom of the hourglass, by the rocks and open shells, represents the past eternity. While the top of the hourglass, close to the surface, represents the future eternity. The cross in the middle of the hourglass represents the code of time.
Five groups of dolphins represent five groups of beings experiencing time differently. One group swims away from it. The second one looks for time in the wrong way. The third group is distracting others from finding the secrets of time. The fourth group is being deceived and distracted. And only the last group discovers the very code of time.
The Dreams • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
The resurrection of consciousness is faith!
The eternal road is a narrow road where you wait for others to pass you.
By the Moonlight • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 16” x 20”)
On the ashes of a tree—an ornament.
Butterfly Passion • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 48”)
Saddles are on their own—
Everywhere we run, love flows true.
Inhaling love one motion at a time
I carry the river to you.
The Challenge • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
Which direction to choose? The challenge of the choices is a maze. The light is ahead for the journey to continue safely. But because of hunger, exhaustion, and the cold, the horse is losing its focus. The blue is the color of the mind; therefore, I painted the shadows blue to create a mental challenge and confusion.
The Forbidden Fruit • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 18” x 20”)
One morning I woke up earlier than usual, and right away I decided to paint—but I could not find any canvas in my studio. My family was still asleep, so quietly, still in my nightgown, I searched my art closets and found one small canvas that I’d worked on a few years ago, but later gessoed in black. I decided to paint a portrait next to a branch of fruit. Right then and there, I understood its meaning. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is full of forbidden fruit—red for the knowledge of evil, and green for the knowledge of good, created to be appealing, fragrant, and easy to be picked. I blended all races to depict Eve, a symbol of the mother of all mankind. At first she thinks that she will gain wisdom by biting into the fruit of knowledge, but unexpectedly she finds the deception as the red poison drips out of the green fruit. The knowledge of good and evil is simply too much for a human to understand and experience.
The Pyramids • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
Hope • AGE 10 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
Angelic Love • AGE 11 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
Upside Down—Inside Out • AGE 11 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 48”)
“Upside Down—Inside Out” is an allegory about purpose, balance and contentment. While some plants are content with who they are and where they are, many are not. Some are artificial plants, some are real, and others are artificially real. Then there are plants growing alone or dominating weaker ones. Still others are plain and peaceful. A few see life radically different while they live upside down. Other plants are used for decoration or simply being knocked down. Some wish to be outside experiencing more changes. Outside the window some plants long to be inside the house believing it is always safe and warm there. Yet all of us, just like plants, have different personalities and purposes. We need differences that unite us, not separate. But more than anything, we need light. Without light we will wither even in the most expensive and beautiful vases.
Memory • AGE 11 (acrylic on canvas; 36” x 48”)
Co-Creating (self-portrait) • AGE 11 (acrylic on canvas; 48” x 60”)
Right after my eleventh birthday, I visualized my self-portrait through the view of a canvas and through the eyes of the spirit. I hoped to express the joy of co-creating, and the awe of wisdom. My palate is the universe, and I dip into the stars with my brush for colors.