Elizabeth Keller is drawn to the old buildings of Maui because they usually contain history that fascinates her. Old architecture can have a kind of purity or dignity that speaks to the artist even though the buildings might have seemed strictly utilitarian when they were built. In the case of the sugar mills in Pai’a and Pu’unene, they are slowly decaying, rusting, and subsiding into the earth. When that happens, their disuse and abandonment have a kind of poignancy. And that they are still standing says something about Maui’s patience and reluctance to remove the past in a hurry; that is also very appealing to the artist.
