"This piece was part of a show that I did in San Jose entitled Face Value. The show explored the human form and its relation to themes of sex, culture, and the human condition. While not explicitly portraying typical themes from the Aloha State, subtle hints of my roots in Hawaii can be found in many of the pieces including the state flower, the hibiscus. Although the official state flower is the yellow hibiscus or ilima, many of the commonly seen red hibiscus varieties found throughout the islands and in Hawaiian imagery, though related to the native yellow variety, were introduced more recently and are not considered “native†plants. In many ways this acts as a metaphor for the very mixed peoples and cultures of Hawaii including myself, being Israeli-born and Hawaii-raised and whose family is many generations rooted in Hawaii but not of native Hawaiian blood." - Kamea Hadar
