As we went downstairs into Martha Woodbury's spacious studio, I was confronted by the energy in the artist's recent paintings. Beyond the studio, in dramatic backdrop, were the West Maui Mountains and both coasts; between mountains and studio stretched Maui's green and yellow fields and the red rocky side of Haleakala.

Over a mug of green tea, I viewed her upcoming show in progress. One of the pieces Morphing Monolith (meaning metamorphosis or transformation), is life-size, about 6 1/2 feet tall by 15 inches wide. Flowing into each other in a chain of being, (rather like Escher) are images such as moonlike circles, bands of light, algae or protozoa. A red cellular field, transitions from perfect linear squares to organic squares.

Another painting has a column of shining rings revolving around a mysterious shaft of light in the center, a "vortex of energy." The vortex is one of the main elements of the show. Her last show had a vortex Buddha sitting in a field of energy.

Solar Plexus

Solar Plexus, the painting featured on the invitation reverses from positive to negative before the viewers eyes. In the show there will be many tall monolithic sized paintings, All of them have layers of glowing colors, shining with a luminosity, often by the subtle use of complimentary hues and a changing value structure, glowing like metallics, although they are almost never used. Some pieces, while monolithic in stature, are more feminine in content. It is a very big concept.

In an artist's statement, Martha says: "This name, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a bit of a play on words for me, and a timely icon (very masculine) of this era. What once seemed so far in the future, is now in the present moment. I've been working with the concept of not only outer space, but inner space, and the space in between things, as with the figure-ground pieces of work. This new work is an evolution of what I've been doing in the past. It's different, but still generated from the parallels between circular- linear, feminine- masculine, negative-positive and yin and yang, etc. and what happens when you combine them. We live in a dynamic universe. It takes this polarity to keep it all in motion. If you create a synthesis of linear and circular, you get a spiral, a DNA or a vortex, cohesive, active, alive".