Are you Hawaiian? (it's all in the name)

I get asked that all the time because of my email address and how I sign my paintings.

Mahalo is a Hawaiian word meaning thanks, gratitude, admiration, praise, esteem, regards, or respects. According to the Pukui and Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary, it is derived from the Proto-Polynesian *masalo.

Maloha, on the other hand, is how I sign my paintings. So where the heck did "that" come from? Well, my name when I started painting, was Mary Lou Harris. I signed a few paintings that way, but it just seemed too long for a signature, so I tried to come up with a shorter signature. I finally arrived at Maloha, which is the first two letters of each of my names MAry LOu HArris = Maloha.

Fast forward - I got married. Luckily for me, I married a man whose last name is Arnold; so I didn't have to change a thing - now I explain that it's MAry LOu Harris Arnold = Maloha.  

So, that, in a nutshell, is why I sign my paintings "Maloha" (I'm not remotely Hawaiian - I vacationed there once tho)

I'm revisiting my blog - it's been a long time, and a lot has happened over the past (I was going to say "few") but it's been 7 years!!!

I've always found it a little difficult to talk about myself, but here I am, and I'm going to make it work this time.... so bear with me while I get my feet wet in the blogosphere, again.

~Mahalo~