Here in Hawaii, the midpoint between North America and Asia, the art of batik—in which wax relief and dye are used on fabric—is taking a new and spectacular direction. The artist behind this work is Phil Soo.

Soo grew up on the island of Borneo in Malaysia, where batik is a national art, and children from a young age learn the craft. Phil Soo has been inspired to ask "What is the potential should someone sit down and bring it to the realm of fine art?" Soo has invested years in pursuing this since he left his successful engineering job on the Mainland and moved to Maui.

Phil Soo says of his chosen art, "Batik is very technical and process-driven." He plans out his composition with an eye for the details of nature. He draws a flower from life, checks its detail, but then he says to it—"Let's see what you could be." He adds color. Soo will choose a small area of the image—perhaps two square inches—and applies the wax. "I work on it like a mosaic," he says, adding a color at a time, and working with the translucence of the dye, adding and layering until a feast of color is created. "One could build the colors up in layers. There is great possibility." He may spend a month or more on a single scroll.

"The theme is Asian, and the coloration comes from Maui. Maui gives me freedom, the freedom to play. I go back to Asia every year, but it's very structured, what's expected of me and my art. Here, I can be like a child again, with the wonder of this beautiful place. I can windsurf and just take in all the colors of the ocean and the sky, and then I can look up at the colors of Haleakala."