The paintings by Pamela Hake in Unmapped are emotional responses to the earth and the events unfolding on it around her. Using acrylics, charcoal, inks, and collage, she releases those emotions in an unmapped representation coming from her soul. Whether it is storm clouds, dead flowers, crashing waves, or sunshine finding its way through the darkness, each is an abstract rendition unique to her.

Lois Lupica has observed that some places resist the precision of a map. The Big Island of Hawai'i is one of them — a landscape still actively becoming itself, where molten earth meets ocean and the light shifts from volcanic haze to blazing gold in a single breath.

Lois's paintings in Unmapped are a body of encaustic and cold wax works born of repeated journeys to this island, each visit revealing something a photograph could never capture. These paintings don't trace coastlines or mark coordinates. Instead, they chase what lingers after the trip is over: the way late afternoon light turns the air amber, the impossible blue where deep water meets shallow reef, the raw authority of lava rock that has barely cooled.

Working in wax allows these impressions to build the way memory does — in translucent layers, one experience settling over the last, edges softening, colors deepening. The encaustic surface holds light the way the island itself does, glowing from within rather than simply reflecting what's above. Some pieces push toward recognizable horizons; others dissolve into pure color and texture, capturing the feeling of a place rather than its likeness.

Unmapped is an invitation to travel without a guidebook — to stand inside a landscape that is felt before it is understood, and to find your own way through.

Banner Image: Lois Lupica, “Before the Storm.” 8 x 8.