Shop Empowered Kepola's Art

There is powerful intention in every cut, fold, crease, and design that Kepola Dudoit puts into her quilling. Each strip of paper she rolls, shapes, and glues together carries the quiet weight of her journey—much like a prayer whispered into the final piece. Quilling, or paper filigree, is a time-consuming art form, but Kepola’s patience and precision transform simple paper into intricate, awe-inspiring works that feel alive with meaning.

Kepola first learned the most basic step of quilling—a single flower petal—while participating in YWCA Oʻahu’s furlough and re-entry program during her time at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua. With encouragement from the program, she began to see that, like paper, her life could be shaped into something entirely new. She graduated from YWCA’s Fernhurst facility, took a series of Dress for Success and Economic Advancement classes, and was soon invited to take on a much larger challenge: creating art for the YWCA headquarters at Laniākea in downtown Honolulu.

The result was Empowered Beauty—an 18-month labor of love and her first large-scale quilling project. The series features five portraits of women from diverse cultural backgrounds, each detailed with thousands of paper elements, from flowers to feathers to flowing hair. Inspired by YWCA’s mission of eliminating racism and empowering women, the work reflects both diversity and unity, encouraging viewers to think about their ancestors, shared histories, and the power of resilience.

Since then, Kepola’s work has been displayed at YWCA Oʻahu, AlohaCare, Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaiʻi, and American Savings Bank, which commissioned her to create a kalo-and-flowers piece for its downtown campus. She has been featured in ASB’s Loi Gallery and continues to create commissioned works for clients, each piece carrying her signature mindfulness and personal connection to the story behind it.

Today, Kepola approaches her art with the same intention that rebuilt her life—cut by cut, fold by fold, piece by piece. Now serving as Member Services Supervisor at YWCA Oʻahu, you’ll often find her greeting members and guests with a warm smile as they walk through our doors. And now, her quilled creations are available for you to bring home. Shop Kepola’s one-of-a-kind paper art pieces exclusively at Shop YWCA—own a work of beauty, empower local women, and carry a piece of her incredible story with you.

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