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Ari Widowati

@ari_may_artfoo

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Illustrator 🎨 + Visual Storyteller |
Capturing backyard wonders 🌿🕊️wherever I find them l Art • Field Notes • Stories from the road | California

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#DiasporaIndonesia #thecreativeact #artlife #sundayreflection taken in Shelter Island Hotels by @ari_may_artfoo

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12 hours ago

The Torch Bearer | The Garden Path of Hawai’i

I met this extraordinary Torch Ginger in Hawai’i, not knowing that its roots traced back to Indonesia—my homeland.

Two travelers, meeting far from home where our journeys began.

But what I remember most is how happy I felt in that Hawaiian garden. How gently the jungle welcomed me, letting me stay, sit, and rest.

Suddenly, the land didn’t feel so foreign anymore.

Perhaps home is not only a place we return to.

Sometimes, it is a feeling we discover along the way.

🖼️ Original painting and poetry by Ari May 🎨

Have you ever found a little piece of home somewhere unexpected?

#The torchbearer #gingertorch #arimaystudio #indonesiandiaspora #hawaiiinspired taken in Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary by @ari_may_artfoo

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7 days ago

Selamat akhir pekan Ibu2, teman2 ku se Indonesia Raya, dimanapun Anda berada. Termasuk ibu2 Diaspora Indonesia.🇮🇩

Perkenalkan nama saya Ari :)

Saya illustrator dan visual storyteller asal Indonesia, tinggal di San Diego, California.

Ikuti cerita dan perjalananku mewujudkan berbagai visi kreatif, karya2 dan refleksiku.

Semoga berkenan di hati ❤️#artwork #shelterisland #artlife #diasporaindonesia #creativehappylife taken in San Diego, California by @ari_may_artfoo

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8 days ago

BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE 🌺 From The Garden Path of Hawai‘i

I have always loved hibiscus.

Perhaps because they feel so familiar to me. They remind me of Indonesia, but I find them everywhere in Hawai‘i too.
By the beach.
 Along a side street.
 Growing beside an overlooked ditch.
 At someone’s home.
 In a lush tropical garden.
 Even in a beautifully curated Japanese garden.

They don’t seem to ask for much.
They don’t wait for the perfect garden. They don’t wait for perfect conditions. They don’t even seem to need anyone’s attention.
They simply bloom where they are.

That is what I kept noticing as I photographed them in Hawai‘i—and what I found myself returning to as I painted this series.

Each flower was different.

Each setting was different. And yet each seemed completely at home.

Then, over the weekend, I painted one more: a large pink hibiscus at the edge of the beach, facing the open sea.

🌺🌊

And somehow, she no longer felt like just a flower I was looking at.

It felt as though she was looking, too.

Perhaps she knows something we sometimes forget:
We don’t have to wait for everything around us to be perfect before we begin to live, to grow, or to bloom.

Here is where I find myself. Here is where I will continue to grow.
And here, I will bloom.

— Ari
#AriMayStudio #TheGardenPathOfHawaii #BloomWhereYouAre #BotanicalArt #OilPastelArt taken in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii by @ari_may_artfoo

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16 days ago

TWO ISLANDS, ONE ROOT 🌺
From The Garden Path of Hawai‘i

I didn’t know their name when I first encountered these flowers in Hawai‘i.

I only knew they were beautiful.

Their unusual blooms caught my attention—the layers of color, the long tropical leaves, each one somehow different from the next.

So I stopped.

I photographed them.

And I carried those images home with me.

Then, sometime after we returned from Hawai‘i, something unexpected happened.

A turmeric plant Richard had planted at home began to flower.

I looked at the leaves.
I looked at the flower.
And something felt familiar.

Wait. I’ve seen you before.
I went back through my photographs from Hawai‘i.
And there you were.

Turmeric.

A flower I had first noticed on one island had followed me home—not literally, but through memory—only to reveal itself again in my own garden.

That small discovery became a series of paintings, and eventually another encounter along The Garden Path of Hawai‘i:

Two Islands, One Root.

It made me think about the things we recognize only later.
How sometimes we encounter something before we understand why it matters.

How a place far away can unexpectedly remind us of home.
And how perhaps home was never meant to exist in only one place.

🌿Perhaps roots know things before we do.🌺#arimaystudio #thegardenpathofhawaii #twoislandsoneroot #botanicalart #oilpastelart art

Have you ever encountered something far from home that somehow felt familiar? taken in Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary by @ari_may_artfoo

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a month ago

It’s Wednesday. We’re halfway through the week 🌿

And today, I’ve been thinking about rest.

Not necessarily sleep.

The kind of rest that comes when you find a place where you can simply be. Where nothing needs to be solved for a little while.

Along 🌺The Garden Path of Hawai’i🌿, I found that place among the heart-shaped leaves.

Heart of Jesus. Caladium. Begonia. Anthurium.

Surrounded by all those hearts, I remembered what it felt like to let the world hold me for a moment.

This is ❤️the Sanctuary Keepers 🌿🌺

A place where I could rest my soul, find myself again, and meet her in her gentlest form.

And somehow, even after leaving, part of me remained there.

Perhaps that is what sanctuary does.

🌿Midweek check-in: where do you go to rest? 🍁

Not necessarily a physical place.

Where is your sanctuary?
#arimaystudio #thegardenpathofhawaii #thesanctuarykeepers #contemporarybotanicalart #artlife taken in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii by @ari_may_artfoo

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a month ago

I painted Indonesian Wax Ginger for the 1st time in December 2025.

I didn’t know then that I would return to her again and again-or that these paintings would eventually become the entrance to a much larger journey.

Over time, a path began to appear.

This is where it begins.

🌺The Greeter 🌺

The Garden Path of Hawai’i

Welcome in.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll share the path one encounter one at a time.

#arimaystudio
#thegardenpathofhawaii
#thegreeter
#indonesianwaxginger
#botanicalart taken in Fallbrook, California by @ari_may_artfoo

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a month ago

What’s been quietly growing in my garden? 🌿

This morning, I’m sitting beside San Diego Bay while Richard works on our boat. It’s chilly and overcast—the kind of quiet morning that gives unfinished thoughts room to return.

You may remember the individual paintings I shared after my Hawai‘i journey last year. At the time, I thought they were finished.
But the journey wasn’t.

While I’ve been quiet here, I’ve been sketching, repainting, and discovering the larger story connecting those works.

I used to think I needed to go to the studio to work. Now I realize—I carry the studio with me.

This is today’s Saturday Field Note, captured while the feeling was still alive.

Tomorrow, I’ll begin showing you the path. 🌊🌿🎨

What has been quietly growing in your garden?
#SaturdayFieldNote #CreativeJourney #ArtistReflection #BehindTheArt #SanDiegoBay AriMayStudio taken in Shelter Island Marina by @ari_may_artfoo

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a month ago

THE PEOPLE WHO MADE A HOSPITAL ❤️

In my last Chicago Field Note, I shared the extraordinary architecture of the former Cook County Hospital.

But as I continued walking through the museum, I realized that the greater story wasn’t really about the building.

It was about the people:

The students who came to learn. The physicians and nurses who taught and served.
The pharmacists, administrators, laboratory professionals, and countless others who made that care possible.
 The patients who placed their trust in them.
 And those who worked to open doors so that more people could learn, practice medicine, and receive care.

Then I discovered something that made the history unexpectedly personal.

Beginning in 1876, Rush Medical College required its students to train at Cook County Hospital.

More than a century later, we had come to Chicago for a very different reason: to visit our daughter, Quinn, as she begins her Master’s in Medical Laboratory Science at Rush University College of Health Sciences—and her own journey in healthcare.

Standing among all those photographs of people who came before her made me think about legacy.

Both of my parents also came from the world of healthcare. But as Richard and I talked about Quinn’s future, I realized something.

Our wish isn’t for her to repeat anyone else’s footsteps.

It is for her to learn from those who came before her—their courage, compassion, curiosity, and spirit of service—and then find her own way.

So, to our daughter:

Honor those who came before you. Serve with humanity. And create a legacy of your own.

With all our love, 
Mom & Dad ❤️

Chicago, thank you for the stories.
— Chicago Field Notes #4
#ChicagoFieldNotes #MedicalHistory #RushUniversity #VisualStorytelling AriMayStudio taken in Cook County by @ari_may_artfoo

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2 months ago

CHICAGO FIELD NOTES #3 — A Palace of Medicine 🏛️

After discovering that our hotel was built inside the former Cook County Hospital, I started looking more closely at the building itself.

And what a building it is.

After years of overcrowding, a monumental new Cook County Hospital opened in the 1910s—described as a “Palace of Medicine.”

By 1916, additional pavilions brought its capacity to 2,700 beds, making it one of the largest hospitals in the world.

But as an artist, what kept pulling me closer were the details.

The columns. The arches. The faces. The cherubs. The lion.

Much of this elaborate ornamentation was created in architectural terra cotta—a material that became especially important in Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871 because it was fire-resistant, durable, affordable, and wonderfully adaptable to intricate architectural forms.

I came downstairs expecting a little museum visit.

Instead, I found myself looking at a building as if it were an enormous work of art.

And that may be one of my favorite things about traveling:

You begin with a destination.
 Then curiosity takes you somewhere else.

But a hospital is more than a building.
Next, I want to look closer at the people who learned, worked, cared, and were cared for here.

More Chicago Field Notes to come. ❤️
#CookCountyHospital #ChicagoArchitecture
#Arimaystudio
#HistoricChicago taken in Cook County by @ari_may_artfoo

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2 months ago

We went to Chicago carrying fear. We came home carrying gratitude 🙏

Richard and I traveled from California to visit our daughter Quinn, as she begins her master’s program in Medical Laboratory Sciences at Rush.

Seeing her new life brought us tremendous reassurance. But an unexpected visit to a museum also opened a door into my own family history.

My father was a medical doctor devoted to serving people- especially those who had less. My mother studied pharmacology in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia in the 1960’s. Now, their granddaughter is beginning her own journey in medical science.

I thought I was going to Chicago to make sure my daughter was okay.

Instead, Chicago reminded me where she came from-and taught me something about family, legacy, courage, and independence.

So much more to share! Stay tune for more stories from Chicago and Happy Independence Day Indonesia! 🇮🇩 #artlife #independenceday #merdeka #diaspora taken in Fallbrook, California by @ari_may_artfoo

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2 months ago

Everyone Celebrates the Tuna

The fishermen pose proudly with their catch. Cameras come out. Friends cheer. It’s the moment everyone remembers.

But while watching the excitement at Point Loma last weekend, I found myself looking somewhere else.

I kept noticing the men in bright orange overalls.

They worked quietly behind the scenes—lifting hundreds of pounds of tuna, weighing each catch, cleaning the fish, organizing them for pickup, helping every fisherman head home with the reward of a successful day on the Pacific.

They reminded me of line cooks in a restaurant.

The chef receives the applause.
But behind every beautiful meal is a team whose hard work makes it possible.

These crewhands are the same.
Strong hands.
Steady rhythm.
No spotlight.
Just pride in doing the work well.

As an artist, I’m becoming more interested in the people we almost walk past.

Sometimes the most meaningful stories aren’t at the center of the celebration.
Sometimes they’re wearing orange overalls.

Thanks for noticing with me!

🎣
Oil pastel on paper Point Loma Fishing Docks, San Diego

#oilpastelart #artlife taken in Point Loma, San Diego by @ari_may_artfoo

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3 months ago