Pacific Journey
by Valerie Hunton
Hardcover 132pp 250x250 Illus Full colour.
ISBN: 9780908618132
This book by the NZ/Pacific artist
Valerie Hunton
is a celebration of her creative life in the Marshall Islands, in
Micronesia and then in Fiji. In it she weaves her experiences with the
voices of the Pacific people she met, the land and its history and the
painting works that emerged along the journey. It is a creative and
powerful tour-de-force. First learning weaving with the women of the
Marshall Islands, she wove with weaving groups throughout the Pacific.
It is her close relationship with these women that brought her into
their everyday lives as they weave their mats, clean their houses, wash
their clothes, prepare the food, attend to their families and take care
of their sick and dying.Also woven into her journey is the land and sea -
the stones and the ancient Lapita shards, the vast reaches of the
Pacific Ocean and its navigators.
Featured in the book are sixteen of
her major painting works, bright and resonant in colour. In these she
quietly reveals a fascinating web of life mostly unseen by casual
visitors.This book is the story of her Pacific life and her celebration
of that journey.
It is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary woman.