Back in 2005, Ewa resident Morris Nakamura met Mayor Mufi Hannemann for the first time and, as part of the occasion, gave the city official one of his oil paintings of Diamond Head.

To his horror, however, Nakamura immediately realized that his gift contained an error, as the waves were coming in from the wrong direction..

"When you look at Diamond Head and it's on your left, and the ocean is on the right, the waves are supposed to come in from the right side," Nakamura explained. "I made the waves come in from the left side.

"But that's OK," he added, laughing.

Nakamura's upbeat attitude is what keeps him motivated about life and painting these days, despite his ongoing battle with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a form of Muscular Dystrophy that in recent years has forced him to paint strictly by mouth.

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