Miki'ala Souza

Mikiʻala Souza is Native Hawaiian painter and printmaker from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Her work uses layers of color and symbolism to focus on landscape and identity. She received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Oregon in 2004 and an MA from Western Oregon University in 2015.  She has received commissions from across the Western United States and exhibited locally and internationally. She works out of her studio on the rural North Oregon Coast, where she teaches art to 7-12 grade students. She travels to Hawaiʻi and throughout the Pacific as often as possible.

My art seeks to engage the senses. I work with two-dimensional media such as drawing, painting, and printmaking and have always created spaces that emphasize texture, depth, and light. The media I use determines the language of my work and for the past decade I have predominantly focused on monotype printmaking. The layering of inks created during the monotype process builds elusive, spatial landscapes. These environments focus on natural rhythms and patterns including currents, wind, clouds, wave swells, and how humans navigate through those spaces. I hope to draw attention to our relationships with water, migration, and place. This includes the cultural, social, environmental, political, and spiritual beliefs we carry with us.

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