Mo'a Romig-Boyles

I am back from Hawaii.  It was a wonderful trip and a great deal of fun to be able to share Hawaii and Marilyn and Gail's retreat, with my long time friend, Katrin.
Who says that you cannot go back?  Well in this case I could go back and it was as wonderful an experience as I had the last time. Marilyn has a way to make you feel right at home.  She sets a wonderful tone for the retreat...one of sharing and caring.
Katrin and I spent two days before the retreat and one day after in Waikiki.  Such fun to be in an area of a city that is situated by a world famous beach. The mountain is Diamond Head.
 

We had a great cultural experience at the Bishop Museum, where my friend learned to dance the Hula...I was too busy taking photos :) We learned a little bit about the history of Hawaii and Hawaii's Royalty.

This is Bread Fruit that can be roasted, baked, fried, or boiled. It grows on a beautiful tree...this one is in the garden of the Bishop Museum.

It was such a great pleasure to be at Marilyn's home situated by the sea.

The colors of the water and the sky was amazing...I took well over fifty photos of that alone...I was in love with the colors.
 

Each one of us created two pieces of art the second piece being a Sea Turtle.  I used colors for my turtle that I saw in the water,the sky and sand.

Here are photos of the first piece I did.  It is made from a large plastic ball that floated from Japan to Hawaii...as they traveled and were tossed to shore they broke up in to various shapes. The piece I used was approximately 12" by 10" and was about a quarter of the original ball. The glass balls inside the piece and in his hat washed up to a beach in Hawaii from Japan...two of them have marks that tell where they came from. I bought them at an antique shop on the North Shore of Oahu. The criss cross patterning is from the nets, the rest of the ball is sand  blasted  by the sea.

Here are photos of the turtle.  She is made from a gourd split in half she is 13" by 12" including the fins.
Here is a photo of the little Sea Elf that likes to take a ride inside the turtle...bet you did not know about Sea Elves :)

Inside the top of the shell is a key that Marilyn and Gail gave me...they gave each one of us a key. A mirror for reflection. a red seed blessed by the Kahuna and a piece of heart shaped coral given to me by Lisa of That Creative Space, that she found when she helped me on to the beach after my first ever swim in the ocean...it is more to the point to call it a float in the ocean, that was facilitated by five friends. 

You see I am deadly afraid of water.  I nearly drowned when I was three years old and the memory of that haunts me to this day.  Since I lived on an island, we were required to take swimming  in school and to swim the 200 meters every year...which I did in the shallow end of the pool  :)  Swimming in the ocean never occurred to me until this trip to Hawaii, where I had the overwhelming desire to at least float in the ocean.
*Whisper* I have actually been back for over a week...Katrin was here with us and we worked on a project that I will show you in the next post.  We had a wonderful time exploring and seeing Southern NJ through Katin's eyes...she loves it here.

I will be away for two weeks in Paradise.

A very good Friend of mine and a fellow artist from Iceland will join me at the retreat.

I like to have beautiful things for you to look at while I am away.  What better than photos than from the last time when I attended Marilyn Radzat and Gail Lackey's retreat.   

We will be walking the beaches and admiring famous landmark like Diamond Head seen in this photo.

I look forward to sitting under these tree writing in my journal or having a glass of tea.

We will gather here new and old friends...there will be much to talk about and to share. We will create art each day in Marilyn's studio on the second floor of this building. 
 

I made this piece when I was at the retreat in 2005. I named her Amma which is an Icelandic word for Grandmother.

                                        

I look forward to showing you more photos and telling you stories when we come back.

Look around while I am gone...Aloha for now. 
            

A Week in Paradise

Did ever dream of going to Paradise to create art and to enjoy the company of like minded people?
Would you like to walk on this beach every day?

Would you like to create art in Marilyn Radzat's studio in Hawaii?

And learn sculpting and costuming secrets from Gail Lackey?

Gather treasures on a deserted beach?

Walk in a Banyan Forest  with new friends?

Meet beautiful people?

See amazing.....agility?

Would you like to see a Sea Turtle up close?

You are in luck if you answered Yes!!!!! to any of these questions. Marilyn Radzat and Gail Lackey are again offering a one week retreat at Marilyn’s incredible home and studio in Oahu, Hawaii.   The retreat from May 19th to the through the 25th. There are still two spaces left.

In 2005 I had the great pleasure of going to Hawaii for the retreat.  There were seven of us along with Marilyn, Gail and Patricia....Marilyn’s long time friend who made us unforgettable and delicious meals. 
We created art together in the morning and in the afternoon we went on excursions around the Island of Oahu.
In the late afternoons we again gathered in the studio and in the evening we had lovely dinners and companionship.
Of all the things I have done in my life this was one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had.

I am thrilled to be going to Marilyn and Gail’s retreat again. I will be joined by a very good friend and fellow artist and her Daughter who is also an artist...they are from Iceland so theirs will be a long trip from a volcanic island in the North Atlantic to another volcanic island in the Pacific.   
I would love to have you come join us.  It would be so much fun to have you my blog friend join us in Paradise. 
What are you waiting for?  E-mail Marilyn and tell her Mo’a sent you.