Fairy Art

Happy funny fairy...

copyright©2007 by tuko
(as usual, all images here are the property of the artist)

Swimming with a turtle

The weather finally cleared for about 30 minutes yesterday and maybe a couple of hours today so it was a dash down to the beach for a long overdue swim... Over to what we call 'Bali', the second set of rock 'islands' that jut out beyond the beach (first set we call 'Tahiti' as an endearing inside joke because it's closer). I saw a small green sea turtle on our way to 'Bali'. Though this image doesn't show it, truth be told I was wearing a wetsuit to keep from getting too cold.
Image copyright 2007 by Tuko

Cold & Rainy Hawaii

Mauna Kea has snow. It's been raining for weeks and enoughs enough. But here I am sitting in our little jungle abode in the tropics in polar fleece. Having finished my assigned projects for the day I decided to do a little sketching with my handy dandy wacom pad. A little one I bought years ago (like 3 computers ago). I hardly use it but I think I'm going to use it more. I finally updated the software from their website, the thing that stopped me. So here's what I'm looking at out my window.

Kalani Art & Fashion Event

Paris? London? Milan? No, it's Puna!!!
















Okay, so let's not forget all the art...









and there was Arthur, and Richard and my art too.

Show at Maui Hands

Arthur Johnsen, Gerald Murai, and I will be representing the Big Island (as well as our gallery) in this juried show opening next Saturday, in Paia. Wish I could be there in person to attend, I love Maui and especially the cute town of Paia.

Hula Girls

Last night Richard (owner of Kalani resort) came over with a couple of volunteers and a movie. We frequently have movie night at someone's home because the nearest movie theater is 45 minutes away in Hilo. Last night's movie was Hula Girls, a Japanese movie by a Korean director (Korean but Japanese born). The movie is about a coal mining town named Iwaki which is located in Fukushima which is north of Tokyo and even though they made it out to be a teeny village it's really a big city if you Google it. But still, it ain't Tokyo. It's supposed to be the 60s and based on a true story. Iwaki was a coal mining town for generations, but now with demand being lower the mining company has to slow down it's operation and lay off it's workers. The town also has natural hot springs so someone gets the brilliant idea to build a huge Hawaiian Village with swimming pools and palm trees, all indoors. They hire a sophisticated dancer from Tokyo to teach the local daughters of coal miners how to dance. Trouble ensues because most of the miners are upset about the change in the town. Good movie with lots of drama and good character development. The teacher (Madoka Hirayama) reminded me a lot of our friend, Yumiko san who also teaches hula in Japan, in Yokohama (not that I picture Yumiko san yelling at her students or slapping them and others around-- I think it was just the hair, the "do"). Of course Richard here who teaches hula at Kalani let us know that in some scenes they were dancing Tahitian style, not Hawaiian. The dancing and costumes in the movie was very reminiscent of watching the Japanese dancers that come to the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo (in the spring).

what could've been...

Here's one of my ideas of an ornament I was going to make with my sculpey clay... Oh well, maybe next year...

Update - Swimming with dolphins

Before going in for my day at Arthur's gallery (every Saturday I sit in) we went down to Kehena Beach. Arthur called up at 8 AM, I still had sleep in my eyes but went down anyway and to my surprise and delight there were pods of spinnaker dolphins. They were so lively, jumping and showing off. It was a fun way to wake up! The water was pretty calm though it was a little murky, probably from all that dolphin spinning.