Maui

This is a cool story. I was blessed to take a trip to Maui when I was in middle school. While we were there, my mom signed us up for a stargazing and sunrise tour at Mt. Haleakala. We had to get up at 2 am to get on a bus that took us to the summit. Once we arrived, I got out and was greeted by the brightest night sky I had ever seen. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie. I was entranced by the galaxy, so much so that I lost track of the group. It was about 5 degrees out and all I had was a light winter jacket. I mean who packs cold clothes for Hawaii? Anyway, I was out there so long that my grandma panicked and sent the search party to find me. I had wandered off to a spot I could lay down and avoid the wind while enjoying the view. I remember thinking to myself, “take this in while you can, because you’ll never witness something like this again”. That’s when I heard people shouting my name. I was in such awe that I lost track of time and had no intentions of going back on that bus. Part of me wanted to stay hunkered down beside those lava rocks. To just disappear into that aurora. But alas, I got up and found the search party. I didn’t have anything to take a picture, besides cameras at that time wouldn’t have captured anything.
But what I did have was a photograph in my head. So, I wanted to paint it from memory; how I remember it. I avoided looking at any references because I wanted it to be from my own perceived reality. I know you might not believe the intensity, but that is exactly how I remembered it. Afterwards, I tried to find pictures of that mountain at night, and the painting was relatively similar to the pictures. I think the exaggeration just means that it had a profound effect on me.