Dreams of Pele: The Orgasmic Dawn of Pele

Dreams of Pele is my newest series of oil on canvas and wood. I began these paintings during the final shedding of the snake, right as we prepared to enter the Fire Horse year—a moment of shedding old forms to make way for fierce, forward momentum according to Chinese Astrology. One painting in the series is already slated to appear on Netflix series (in 2027).

I am Juanita Ka’āhanui, a painter.

Before I became an artist, my early career centered on archaeology. I hold an honors degree from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in anthropology, with a focus on Hawaiian and Pacific Islands archaeology. My fieldwork extended through the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, the Mariana Islands, Tahiti, and American Samoa.

That training runs through all my work now. Anthropology studies humans and how they create meaning through culture and environment. As an artist, I do the same with paint.

My paintings draw from my own genealogy, background, and the ways native peoples interpret the world, along with my personal experiences with Kīlauea and sacred vows taken in her presence.

My husband and I were married along the crater's edge with Pele's steam floating behind us. Genealogy shows he descends from Pele among other deities. My own genealogy carries explosive power: my Abuelo Francisco Acevedo, a direct lineal descent of Moctezuma II. 

In our Tlanonotzaliztli (Nahuatl legends), volcanoes embody love stories between warriors and princesses—tales that live in my blood, much like the romance of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, where passion transforms into eternal mountains.

When I study Pele’s moʻolelo, I see how Kānaka Maoli have understood volcanic events across generations—transforming eruptions into narratives of creation, migration, and divine feminine power. Archaeological evidence—ancient settlements layered near volcanic sites, footsteps preserved in lava flows—shows how communities constructed cultural stories around Pele and the universal forces of nature, just like Nahuatl traditions.

Moʻolelo reveals how ancient people gave purpose to these forces, seeing land’s transformations as deliberate acts of an architect who builds new ʻāina. That same theme—feminine power as world-builder, flow as creative force of beauty, fire as evidence of renewal—appears consistently in my paintings.

I aim to observe and honor the orgasmic nature and deep feminine flow of Pele that mirrors our own bodies and menstrual cycles. I look at my own body and feel the rhythmic building, the pressure, release, and renewal that creates, reshapes life, and brings forth new life from deep within.

Right now, Pele demonstrates this truth in real time. 

Episode 43 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption at Kīlauea summit began this morning, March 10, 2026, at 9:17 a.m. HST. Fountains from the north and south vents reached maximum heights over 1,300 feet (with reports of up to 1,310 feet for the south vent), layering fresh lava across about one-third of the crater floor and sending voluminous tephra (including ash, Pele's hair, and particles up to several inches in some areas) northward, prompting hazardous conditions, road closures on Highway 11, park restrictions, and a Volcano Warning from USGS.

This is creation unfolding—precise, relentless, and alive—adding to the more than 40 episodic events since the current phase started in late 2024.

What draws me most in these moments is the colors at dawn's first light. Before the full blaze takes over, the pre-dawn sky holds a profound, vivid blue—saturated cobalt or sapphire that lingers because of the low-angle sun scattering shorter wavelengths through cooler, cleaner air.

As the light rises, billowing clouds or the edges of volcanic steam and gas plumes catch it, blooming into soft purples, lavenders, and pinks. These gentle hues frame the orange-red glow from the fountains and molten flows below, creating stark yet harmonious contrast: cool stillness giving way to warm invitation, then the fierce release that builds new land.

This palette emerges naturally.

The deep blue serves as a quiet backdrop, amplifying Pele's flow while the purple-pink clouds add tenderness—a reminder that feminine power carries grace, even when misunderstood or feared.

In Hawaiian stories, creation begins in transitions: from night to day, from pause to eruption, from release and renewal to bold forward motion. I expand this into my own moʻolelo through the cultural significance of the snake's shedding giving way to the horse's run in this Fire Horse year, influenced by Chinese traditions and living and working in Honolulu's historic Chinatown. 

This year marks profound transition, much like my own cycle. The dawn blue with those fleeting purple and pink accents mirrors the feminine rhythm in my series—the undulating flow, the building intensity, the orgasmic release that holds the power of infinite creation.

I rely on talented Instagramers on the Big Island to capture these beautiful scenes, especially the dawn transitions that highlight that vivid blue sky accented by purple and pink clouds.

Native Hawaiian photographer @TomKualiiphotography (Tom Kūaliʻi), a Big Island-born veteran and heavy equipment operator, connects deeply to the ʻāina. As a Kānaka Maoli photographer, he captures the spiritual mana of Pele's eruptions—lava fountains, Koaʻe kea birds in flight amid molten flows, and dramatic dawn-to-daylight shifts—with intimate, powerful imagery that honors cultural and natural forces. His shots reveal the raw beauty and cultural resonance of these moments, making him a key source for the living palette that inspires my paintings.

Two other accounts I follow closely for reliable, high-quality views include @808hiker (Justin Hirako), who posts frequent eruption updates, long exposures, and dawn shots from spots like Volcano House, and @hawaiivolcanoesnps (the official Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park account), which shares verified park photos, webcam highlights, and atmospheric conditions that often show the caldera's glow framed by shifting clouds in those transitional hues.

These colors thread into every piece in Dreams of Pele.

I capture that dawn blue base, the subtle purple-pink clouds haloing the volcanic birth, and the molten beauty beneath. They remind us that feminine energy inherently creates the world we live in with our own innate force.

Through moʻolelo, tlanonotzaliztli, and my paintings, I record the sense of awe and meaning these natural forces hold, viewed through a contemporary lens as I view the world through Instagram.

Get on my list for a Collectors only preview of Dreams of Pele Series, exhibition and events. 

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