Cover design for "Midsummer Night's Dream with a taste of Polensia"...

Cover painting by my lil' sis Maria with background painting by mwah

Am really blessed to have creativity and talented artists in my family, starting with my mum who then passed it over to me and now my children and sis' Maria. This particular design was a collaborative effort between my sis and I to design the cover for a first Shakespearian adapted work.

The brief I gave my sis' was to come up with a silhouette design of a man and woman (Samoan styled) with a background that depicted the "..Night's Dream". Maria came up with the silhouettes and flowers (much in keeping with our "Pacific Hibiscus" (poetry collection) book design and left the background for me to paint.

I wanted to keep it simple and went for a deep greenery colour in the lower background, in keeping with the story that is set in the coconut plantation but thought not to paint coconut trees which would be too distracting and then kept the sky blue and wanted to illuminate the silhouettes to make them stand out.

It's funny, but today I was reflecting about when I was in high school, many years ago, I had a careers class when I was around 15-16 years old and I specifically remember looking for areas of careers that I would be interested, that seemed to fit in with the talents that I had and it was the hand out of the "Art Director" that caught my attention. It didn't happen career-wise in not going to art school at Uni (which was my origin intention) but it has happened for me in the joy of being able to design my own book covers.

I'm also pleased with the way that Maria painted the young woman, as in the play (for those who recall the origin Shakespearian play) one of the young ladies is expected by her father to marry the man of his choice rather than the man of her choosing. She has a night to make the decision before she must suffer the consequences if she chooses against her father's will.

The male (father), depicted in the painting, wears a red "ula fala" which is a symbolic red flowering vegetation that is sewn into a necklace that mainly "matai" or those of chiefly Samoan status would wear. He is also holding a "to'oto'o" which is usually used by "tulafale" (chiefly orators) to symbolise their status as orators and is used in formal speech making occasions.

In adapting Shakespeare's play, I wanted to keep true to the origin and translated it line by line within a Samoan/Pasifika context, therefore the addition to the original title of ... "with a taste of Polensia" is a take on the word "Polynesia" which is a mythical place that I have placed the setting of the play.

This will also be my fourth play that I have launched (with 3 more to go) with the intent to launch a short stories collection next year and the first of my novels, Lord willing. As usual, a lot to get ready as one of the book sellers approached me to have the books ready for releasing to the libraries before the actual launch so have had to up my game on the deadlines.

Therefore, keeping out of mischief before the October launch and looking forward to my parents from Samoan joining me for this special occasion...