Puna motto

On my way up the hill from Kehena Beach (after a long swim with Richard from Kalani) I saw a sign that put a smile on my face. The sign was handmade and much more authentic and interesting than my rendition, painted on a paper plate, but here's the message:

Dustin

Another life drawing session with a new model who was a natural.

Paul Korda

Old friend and musician and former client of Craig's came through for a visit last week and in that time was able to make a music video, mostly of our area. Look for Arthur painting at Davis'. The baby swinging is at our little beach in Kehena. Cool. Good luck Paul. While he was here he gave a two song concert at the Kalani cafe. My little keyboard never sounded so good. Of course those of us who were lucky enough to hear him in such a cozy venue were treated to a true world class rocker. Click on his name to link to his web page for more info about him.

Watching the Super Bowl

Actually, we only watched the commercials, thanks to our DVR (digital video recorder). Usually we fast forward through the commercials, except during the SB. For me, the commercials are the best part and of course I'm partial to the animated ones.

YMO

A band I followed in the early 80s. Cute commercial.

Good-Bye, Mike Sakamoto (1949-2009)

Fellow island plein air painter Mike Sakamoto recently passed away after a long illness. I will miss his humor (he was always sending us all the funniest jokes) and his kindness and generocity in sharing his knowledge and friendship.

Yesterday, Arthur and I painted at Davis's again in honor of Mike.

These are just a few of the paintings he would email me throughout the last couple of years. I'm glad I can post them here. Aloha, Mike, dear friend.

toy project

My other creative outlet where I make up stuff.

Painting at Davis's

Arthur has a friend who has a beautiful property in Opihikao. Here's Arthur finishing up a sketch/painting of some ti plants.


I decided to go for a Valentine theme. And Bugsy sat by on sleepy guard duty.

Lava Trek part 2-the hike back.

Lava Trek

Last Saturday morning I got up at 3:30 AM to meet a group of friends who wanted to go for a lava trek. It was extremely windy at that ungodly hour but I'm glad I did it. The deal is you want to see the lava while it's still dark, see the sunrise and walk back in daylight (a good thing).

At sunrise Arthur and Pamela, his childhood friend visiting from Canada, treated us to a Hawaiian chant. Unfortunately, all you hear here is the wind.

Life drawing

Another Saturday session at Arthur's Studio. The last couple of times I've decided to work smaller instead of the traditional huge sizes, mostly so I don't have to stand while drawing. I once studied life drawing with Justine Wolfson (who also taught intaglio print making). I think I was kind of channeling her because as I was drawing I remembered her detailed small drawings that she would do during the class while she encouraged us to draw large. We had a great model today, someone who'd done it for over 20 years, a real "pro" (he actually has an MFA, in sculpture and ceramics-but he probably did a lot of modeling during art school). He was very strict with our one minute gesture poses so in some ways it was good that I was working smaller.

Happy New Year!

Holiday wishes

...please click image to enlarge.

P5

back to youtube...

LV commercial

Louis Vuitton commercial - Fantastic Plastic Machine - "Different Colors"I think this Louis Vuitton commercial is so cool. I just discovered this website, imeem.com. It's great for listening to music. You can pretty much listen to anyone, even find whole albums. I hope it doesn't get shut down. You can't download from them, you still have to buy the music if you want it for yourself, like if you wanted to listen on your ipod, but for music off the computer it's the best I've found.

Paradise Park Art Studio tour

Fellow artists, Esther Sczegedy, Arthur Johnsen, hula friend, Yumiko-san, and I spent our Sunday doing the Hawaiian Paradise Park Art Studio Tour. It's always interesting to see other artists' studios. HPP is one of the largest neighborhoods in the U.S. and they seem to have their share of talent.

Santa's Elf...me

Can't believe how fast another year goes by... I'm only now beginning to try to come up with new styles for Xmas ornaments to sell at the gallery. Here's the first.

Kalani art show

I unfortunately didn't take my camera to last night's Art Show at Kalani but I must say I was glad I went (and even participated in it). Sometimes I start to feel like a hermit not wanting to venture out, forgetting that Kalani has these wonderful events, really more often than not. And it's so close (out here in this remote part of Hawaii). More than the art there were the huge pool of talent among the volunteers who work at Kalani. I suppose it attracts a higher percentage of alternative lifestyle types that would even come to Kalani (even as yoga and meditation have become so mainstream). From aerial dance to lots of music, a fashion show and even a very well done short movie we were well entertained. I must make sure to be at the next one.

Sawada Kenji World

I'm still stuck in Sawada Kenji Youtube land. It's fun to listen while doing my other work... (making cute little cards at the moment). It's unbelievable how much material there is... Youtube has to the best internet site of the 2000s (so far)...

Puna Butter

Arthur originally had this project but handed it over to me to massage things on the computer. Much better for making quick changes (his computer was down and he was doing things by hand--not good use of his time...there was a lot of copy to deal with). I was happy to help.

The product is new, Safi had been making this and as things go her friends encouraged her to get it out on the market. Her website is www.newvisionsphere.com