ABOUT

Creative Vision

I’m writing this at one thirty on a Sunday morning, sitting in my office chair, surrounded by quiet. My artist statement is confusing—because I’m at a confusing part of my life. I was warned that adulthood would be a war, an internal war. The numbers add up quickly, time runs faster, and I keep tripping, daring to catch up to the ever-clever clock. I’ve changed. I’m not the person I was when I started this program. I’ve fallen in love with the raw me—the me I’m still discovering through art. I’m not perfect. I’m a liar sometimes, as a survival mechanism. I’ve built walls, but I’m learning to take them down. Instead of reshaping myself to please others, I’m beginning to love the person I see in the mirror. My scars and my journey are not to be regretted or resented. They are the thorns that help me grow into a unique Flora—a flower with flavor, with different shades of color, imperfectly perfect, and audacious in her bloom.

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My art is a portal into my being. It pulses through my flesh, vibrates in my cells and neurons, and connects to the spirit within me and all my senses. To evoke—that is my purpose: to evoke and to provoke. I tell stories that are dreamy and tender, but also stories that are dark, painful, and raw. As artists, we carry the responsibility to tell truths that aren’t always beautiful. We educate, inform, and stir critical thought. We offer memento mori. We remind. We resist. We give you butterflies and ask you to question life. We are the voices that illuminate the many shades of Mother Nature’s creation—this ever-fleeting life. I’m Maii, and through my art, I live, I feel, I wander, I remember, I grieve, I resist, and I am learning to release the demons, facing my inner child, the Michael before he became Maii. I strive to learn to face uncertainty with a smile.