About the Artists
Ami Pierce
Ami Pierce is an artist and designer whose work explores the relationship between environment, memory, and personal transformation. Grounded in the belief that spaces carry emotional resonance, her paintings consider how beauty, comfort, and intention can quietly influence the way we experience ourselves and the world around us.
After stepping away from a career in corporate leadership, Ami turned toward creative practice as both inquiry and restoration, a process of reimagining what it means to build a life shaped by intuition rather than expectation. Influenced by her work in mindset coaching and hospitality design, she approaches painting as an extension of lived space, creating work that invites reflection, softness, and possibility.
Much of her inspiration comes from Hawaiʻi Island, where shifting landscapes of ocean, rainforest, and volcanic terrain mirror the emotional thresholds present in her work. Through layered surfaces and symbolic use of color, Ami explores themes of transition, belonging, and the courage required to pursue long-held dreams.
Her paintings are often integrated into the homes and environments she designs, dissolving the boundary between art and daily life. Rather than standing apart from everyday life, her work is meant to live alongside it, offering moments of pause and recognition, and gently reminding viewers that meaningful change often begins simply by paying attention.
Kristie Fujiyama Kosmides
Kristie Fujiyama Kosmides is a fourth-generation Japanese American born in Hilo, Hawaii. Her work is born from a deep sense of listening - to the environment, to people, and to the stories that emerge between them. Her art is both an offering and a conversation: a reflection of personal connections, place-based experiences, and the belief that art can quietly influence how we feel, remember, and connect with the world around us. Each piece seeks harmony between softness and strength, drawing inspiration from the dynamic interplay of masculine and feminine qualities to create work that feels both grounded and expansive
Kristie earned her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, where she received the Department Chair Award. She has studied painting under Linus Chao, Alyssa Monks, and Vincent Desiderio. Kristie has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and her commissioned work includes installations for the Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii State Capitol Building, Ritz Carlton Waikiki, Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, Sheraton Maui, Tsunami Museum, Hawaii Pacific Health, Kapiolani Medical Center and Hilo Benioff Medical Center.
Dainelle Burnside
My name is Danielle Burnside. I have a deep reverence for the ocean, and have been inspired to create my whole life. Both our sea, and painting, is dreaming awake for me. I am from Michigan, and was introduced to the ocean in 2017, after having moved to the Big Island of Hawaii. I was scared of dark water, got sea sick, and didn't know what side was port or starboard - and still decided it was a good idea to take a job on a manta ray tour boat! Those manta rays, and that water, changed my life. Ever since, I have been pouring myself into art inspired by our oceans. Each print is intentionally hand enhanced with copper leaf, acting as a transfer of mana and energy.
My hope is that anyone who takes a piece of my work home - feels the intrinsic truth that I feel when swimming in the sea. My greatest desire is that these images read as enchantment, and lead others to discover how incredible, powerful, life changing, and life sustaining, our underwaters, and all of us, are. Part of all proceeds goes back to conserving our blue planet.
