Summoner

Summoner — acrylic on canvas, 2026

In old Hawaiʻi, kupuna held a sacred knowledge of the sea — some traditions speak of elders who could call the waves themselves, whipping the water with cord and intention to coax the swells toward shore. Brad Burns captures that moment of invocation: a bearded figure stands waist-deep in the Pacific, lines trailing from his hands as he works the surface in ritual gesture, a child floating beside him on a surfboard — patient, ready, trusting the old ways. Cowrie shells anchor the foreground like talismans, a volcano breathes smoke into the wide blue sky behind, and somewhere between myth and memory, the ocean listens.