"33"

This is the second piece in the series of nine.


For this series, I am using a variety of transfer processes. You name it, and I've probably employed that transfer process in one of my paintings in this series. This is an old topography map of the Kalaupapa peninsula that I've transferred onto the canvas. The canvas was primed, then coated with an acrylic ground. The image was printed on "Sheer Heaven" paper, then transferred onto the canvas. After that, I start to bring up the image that I transferred by using colored pencils, oil sticks and acrylic paint.



This is called a 'skin transfer'. This is a toner based copy of Damien when he was 33 years old. In doing this transfer method, a toner based copy has to be used.



The elements are starting to come together, but I'm not anywhere done at the stage you see here.

At 33 years of age, Damien had been on the Big Island since his arrival in Hawaii. He accomplished a lot in the ten years he was there. During the Holy Week of Easter in 1873, he went to Maui to attend a dedication of a new church. The Bishop was looking for several priests to volunteer going to the Leper Colony on Molokai as there was much work to be done there. The thought was that he would recruit several priests and they would be there on a rotational basis. Damien volunteered and soon, he and the Bishop sailed over to the Kalaupapa Peninsula. He arrived there with just the clothes on his back, his Holy Cross and a breviary (a prayer book). That was it.

Damien never left.