Poutoa After Church 2000 52-1/2" x 29" Oil on canvas

I spent time in Western Samoa on a study abroad program as an undergraduate. I stayed on a 1-1/2 sq. mile island called Manono. One of my first series of paintings was of my Western Samoan friends. This is the last piece in that series. Poutoa has just returned from church services and already torn his white shirt and tie off. He is standing in front of a wall which is a memorial to an ancestor- the man with 99 wives. The wall has a missing stone to symbolize the last wife needed to get to 100. In my painting the wall is overgrown with mysterious fruit and a person offstage holds an infant that may well be Poutoa's as he had a girlfriend who got pregnant, but he refused to marry her. The family solved the dilemma diplomatically by allowing Poutoa his way, but raising the child for the mother's family.