The world, remembered

Jeanne Bitz — pronounced JEE-nee — is a Maui-based artist and single mother of four. Her work is closely tied to the main chapters of her life: growing up in family patterns of pain and silence, building a successful art career in Alaska, leaving an unhealthy marriage, and finding a new sense of belonging and direction on Maui.

Jeanne began her career in Alaska, where her early exhibitions included showing work at the Homer airport, four small children in tow, camping on exhibition weekends, and celebrating her first art sale by watching wild bears at the local dump. Over time, those humorously humble beginnings grew into a respected career that included Alaska State art commissions in both painting and life-size cast bronze, along with meaningful connections in remote communities and villages.

Years ago, after a workshop in Anchorage, a visiting New York artist encouraged Jeanne to paint what she knew. That advice stayed with her. Eventually, she began making paintings that addressed the harder parts of her own story, including You Be A Good Girl. Those works helped her face and move through inherited generational trauma, but they also reached other women in ways she had not expected. Again and again, a viewer would recognize something of her own life in the work, and a painting would open a tender, tearful conversation between strangers.

When her marriage was ending, Jeanne was unexpectedly invited to show at Contemporary Masters Gallery in Lahaina while visiting Maui. She later moved to Hawaiʻi with her children, lived in Haʻikū, painted, worked at Mama's Fish House, and began rebuilding her life and career. A new chapter opened when she met Kimokeo Kapahulehua while painting a commissioned portrait at the Maui Tropical Plantation. Kimokeo invited her to paddle, and the canoe community became one of the most transformative parts of her life.

Through Kimokeo's mentorship, Jeanne was introduced to Hawaiian traditions, cultural practice, story, discipline, and the daily work of moving together toward a shared goal. The canoe gave structure to what she was already learning: where we come from matters, but so does where we are going, how we care for one another, and what we choose to carry forward. Kimokeo's mentorship became an important part of Jeanne's education in Hawaiian traditions and stories. He shared the traditions and their meanings, and Jeanne learned to paint from those teachings. Beginning with E Ala E, their collaboration helped open the direction of her current work: paintings shaped by Hawaiian story, cultural memory, human dignity, devotion, community, and responsibility to future generations. Jeanne is now one of the people carrying those teachings forward through her art.

Today, Jeanne paints with more freedom and clarity than ever before. Her work has moved from painting pain alone toward painting what she feels the world needs to remember. Her paintings are made to bring presence into people's homes — as reminders of connection, resilience, and the living world as she sees it: vibrant with wisdom and beauty.