I was born and raised with wholesome values on rolling farmland in New Zealand and educated at a private girls boarding school. Although I was given private art classes, I was termed a "late developer" and never seemed able to recreate anything realistic, though clearly gravitated to circling spiral shapes in watercolor.
I thought I would grow up to be a dancer, but in 1972 studied religion at university, then dropped out to directly explore eastern spiritual aspirations. This journey included such practical applications as ikebana (the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging), living in a commune in India and participating in touring musical and theater performances, overseeing the handloom weaving of custom made fashion garments, and washing up on various beaches to spend weeks making necklaces of seashells and carving out coconut bowls - all with an obvious natural aptitude but without any qualifications.
In 1988 -when finally ready to settle - with pockets full of shards of blue and white china collected from travel on Asian continents and an abundance of perpetual inspiration, my partner and I founded a community in a remote area off the grid on Maui, Hawaii - based on the words of the mystic rumi: " let the beauty you love be what you do - there are a thousand ways to kneel & kiss the earth."
The next 25 years was a thorough investigation of how to relate to art as a complete lifestyle woven into both the natural environment and the rituals of daily life, but primarily as a expression of prayerful devotion. Using found objects of wood, stone and metal, I oversaw team installations in intricate landscaping with shell and shard pathways. I also experimented with mosaic and glass.
Much of this work has been documented in a book we published "Halemano Imprints."
In the last eight years I have focused primarily on collage and mixed media - working with layers of paper, paint, glass and found objects. Since moving to Santa Fe in 2014, many of these works of art have taken shape using my partners, Hans Gebhardt, photographic backgrounds.
I have never formally exhibited my work, owing to the fortunate situation that admirers have always appeared in my workspace and become eager to possess a piece or two.
Artist Statement
For me, art is something that permeates all of life’s expressions.
I cannot unravel myself from this great tapestry, “the taste and flavor of divinity that the natural realms mirrors me.” I see myself as an instrument to serve this outpouring of spirit. My artistic impulses are moved by my daily offerings of prayer, as well as fragments I gather such as dried grasses, petals, leaves, pebbles, shards of pottery, glass, shells, wisps of hair, rusted metal, sticks which - weaved anew - find their place again in consciously placed order.
Amidst layers of paper, shreds of fabric and touches of paint, I link transitions of the various collage elements on my canvas with various degrees of opacity and transparency. This becomes a journey that explores the edges of where seemingly different surfaces, colors and textures meet and find a harmonic interplay. I draw from different cultural and spiritual references and use symbols to capture the language of the timeless and – to me – universal. My intent is to reveal a world where everything is seamlessly connected.
