pele

Media: Found Objects Wall Sculpture
Dimensions: 36" long
Date of Work: 07/04

Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of volcanos. In Hawaiian chants, she is described as
"She-Who-Shapes-The-Sacred-Land". Appropriately, she is passionate, volatile, and
capricious, and the most visible of all the old Hawaiian gods and goddesses.

As legend has it, Pele traveled across the entire chain of Hawaiian islands searching
for a home for herself and eventually landed on the Big Island's Mauna Loa, which is
considered the tallest mountain on earth when measured from its base at the bottom of
the ocean. She established her home on its slopes and lives in the craters of the Big
Island's Kilauea Volcano, from which she has been sending ribbons of fiery lava down the
mountainside, adding new land around the southeastern shore almost continuously since 1983.

Pele is known for her violent temper, but also for her common visits among mortals. She
is said to appear either as a tall, beautiful young woman or as a very old, ugly and
frail woman. She is often accompanied by a white dog and typically tests people, rewarding
the kind and punishing the cruel or disrespectful. Pele also loves attending social dances,
and is known for great jealousy and vengeance when she doesn't get her man. She is considered
a protector of the Hawaiian people. Her fiery temper, and passion are well-documented in myth,
as are the many accounts Pele’s romantic pursuits. Most of the lovers the volcano goddess took
were not lucky enough to escape with their lives but are said to be trapped in the odd misshapen
pillars of rock that dot volcanic fields to this day. People who live on the islands-whether
Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, or other-speak respectfully of the ancient goddess who has destroyed
more than 100 structures on the Big Island since 1983, and added more than 70 acres of land to the
island's southeastern coastline.