I’ve been down with a seasonal bug, but this cattleya plant cheered me up. This morning I noticed five new fragrant blooms that weren’t open last night. This orchid has been in our collection for years and seems to have adapted well to the culture here. Its label is long gone, so I can’t pass on the correct name. I thought you might imagine its sweet scent and enjoy the flowers too.
It’s ho‘oilo, the wet season, and here comes the rain. It’s the time of year to consider painting rainy-day pictures.
This is a view from the studio and two more waterfalls I can see when I look straight back into Makaua Valley. When it’s not raining, the falls are dry.
In 2006, it rained continuously for 40 days and 40 nights, causing landslides, flooding in Kaaawa village, and extensive damage to Makaua stream, a stone’s throw away from the studio.
We are so very thankful that the stream has been restored to pre-storm conditions in several sections. The restoration was completed and blessed just last month.
Leaving the stream unrepaired was considered a risk to public health and safety.
One damaged section was ma uka (mountain side) of the bridge (see photos below). On Kamehameha Highway, the main artery between Kahaluu and Haleiwa on Oahu, this bridge was in jeopardy. Many thanks to the federal and state governments, the contractors, and the community—including the private land owners and tenants of the land next to the stream and the contractors—for making this $816,092.00 restoration project possible.
In this 2006 photo, roaring Makaua Stream had already washed out the embankment. In the background is a residential road and the fire station. Kamehameha Highway is just out of the picture on the left side.
Here you can see the reconstruction work. The debris and the huge boulders that washed down have been cleared away. The job took 200 days to complete.
The restoration project including the new embankment, jumbo drainage pipe, and fencing was completed and blessed in October, just in time for new rains.
The photos of 2006 were made by Peter Krape.
The Great Pumpkin is visiting Rebekah’s Studio today. 😉
It’s voggy in the landscape today. I saw it when I drove from Kaaawa to Kaneohe.
The Koolau Mountains in vog, about 10:15 a.m. today. Notice the ridges appear in three tints of gray.
What’s vog? Vog is the less-than-clear air that we have when the kona winds from the southeast blow the emissions from the volcano up the island chain toward the northwest. It’s like the words fog and smog. It hangs around until the regular trade winds return.
Vog is worst on Hawaii island, a.k.a the Big Island, home of the eruption. The falling ash deteriorates homes and crops, and the smokey air makes it hard to breathe. It reminds me of when I arrived at art school in Pasadena (Los Angeles) one August and was told as I gazed out the floor-to-ceiling windows, “The mountains are right there in our backyard, and they’re beautiful, but it’s so smoggy, we can’t see them.”
One good thing about the atmosphere as today’s vog, though, is that it serves to explain how to paint distance. Generally, objects in the foreground have the darkest value, and as objects recede into the middle-ground and background, they become lighter in value. As one’s eye moves back into space, the values become lighter.
On an ordinary sunny day, the kind that prompts us to say, “It’s just another beautiful day in Hawaii!” the Koolau Mountains are clear and colorful enough to see the individual trees on them. To represent such a scene with paint and for it to “read” properly, we consider the logic of light and either lighten and/or mute the colors in the background, even though we don’t see them that way with our eyes. But on a day like today, you absolutely can see it.
If you have ever seen the Blue Ridge Mountains in Appalachia, or photos of them, it’s the same thing.
Nuuanu Pali Lookout (center of photo) viewed from Luluku, about 10:30 a.m. today
This morning my destination was Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden at Luluku at the foot of the mountains where I go to paint. Here is a photo of the Nuuanu Pali pass viewed from Luluku. Ordinarily the cars on the highway and the people at the lookout are visible.
Notice that both photos appear blue, or blue-gray. My own eyes did not see the scene this way because I am used to seeing the scene in full color (the whole spectrum), and my brain translated it into full color. But, as the saying goes, the camera doesn’t lie. Blue is the color of atmosphere.
Now, knowing about values (shades of gray) as they relate to distance, and knowing about the color of atmosphere, you can represent distance in a painting by muting and lightening the colors of objects as they recede.
If you forget to do this initially in an oil painting, there is a glazing technique you can use, but only after the paint is dry. Take a dollop of painting medium with your palette knife and mix it with a tint of blue pigment (e.g., white + ultramarine + cobalt). Have a clean, soft cloth handy. Brush the glaze over the part of the painting that you want to lighten. Then, working quickly (because glaze dries fast), wipe off with the cloth little by little, if you wish, to get the effect you want. Ta-dah!
The values underneath that you painted originally will stay the same, that is, the relationships among the values will remain. You are simply putting in the atmosphere with your tinted glaze.
Don’t worry if the glaze gets beyond the area you want. Just go back and paint over it. (We call that “destroy and recover.”)
Thanks to Gloria Foss who taught me how to do this. To see my oils, click on PAINTINGS in the menu bar.
With information coming in from all around, I’ve been feeling out of sorts these past few days. I’m worried that I’m backsliding to my old ways of allowing outside forces to disrupt my practice of being peace. What happened to being in the present (Eckhardt Tolle), taking 15 minutes to do anything (FlyLady), and going with the flow?
My flow and my routine have been interrupted, but rather than stew about it, I’ve finally decided to write it down in this post. Writing is literary art, and as with any art, one keeps working at it to improve, spending time on task. Like a painting, a piece of writing evolves. Writing can be therapeutic too. So here goes. What might be bugging me?
The information that is coming in is of a spiritual nature, from meditating, dreaming, reading, and other people. It’s from practicing the “relax, open, and smile” of qigong. Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given to you. Right in front of you. Oh, boy! I trust myself and the messages. I welcome them, but I want to take time to sort them out.
In the past seven days I learned that Alan Holt Jr. (art fan), David P. Eldredge (teacher), and Norman Bode (neighbor) died. I can’t say I was close to any of these Hawaiians, but each did touch my heart in his unique way, and I knew he cared. I guess I’m grieving. I remember what the intuitive Camille said to me: “You came into this life to assist with grief, but it is not appropriate to take other people’s grief.” (Okay)
I’m slightly anxious about my eyes. Nothing serious, but the optometrist recommended I visit the ophthalmologist about a wayward eyelash that’s the apparent cause of chronic irritation. So I’ve made an appointment. (Good)
Regarding my body, some aches have returned. Is it something mechanical like my chair? Not enough tai chi—I skipped a couple of classes—or too much? The TMB syndrome (Too Many Birthdays)? Was it from Stephen’s guided meditation last week when I sent a grounding chord from my root chakra at the base of my spine to the middle of the earth? (Hmmm)
Could the soreness be from carrying our baby granddaughter? Ayla, who is an absolute delight, and her entourage come to the studio four days a week now, and I get to do some weight lifting. It’s a very pleasant distraction, though. This week DH and I introduce her to my favorite food, poi. (Wonderful)
Or maybe it’s the shoes thing. Now that’s a problem. I don’t like to wear shoes, at least not the closed-toe kind. I’m hard to fit, my toes need to be able to wiggle and breathe, and recently I haven’t found any that are comfortable, supportive, and stylish. This matters because in six weeks I’ll be on my way to Austria where I will be on a boat as well as on cobblestone streets, and where both the air and the ground will be much too cold to wear sandals like I do in Hawaii. I have large feet, thanks to my Hawaiian and Hakka Chinese genes combined. They’re not just long, they are wide. Wider than M, but not as wide as W, depending. I’ll probably end up turning my trusty lavender snow boots into all occasion footwear and let it go at that. (Good bet)
Lately, too, I’ve added the Ka Lahui Hawaii website, http://kalahuihawaii.wordpress.com, to my “want to do” list.
I want to make and sell more paintings, and . . .
Hey, you know what?! I think I need some REIKI! Can anybody come out on Friday? It will be my treat.
Reiki is a complementary therapy that balances a person’s mind, body, spirit and emotions. For more information, click on REIKI HEALING BY OELEN in the menu bar. Or view my 9/3/09 post “Learning about energy healing.” Our healing space in Kaaawa is open on Friday. Call first to let us know if you’re coming. 808 237-7185.
Three live panel discussions on the status of Hawaiian sovereignty will be held tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 24, at the UH Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, 2645 Dole Street, in Honolulu, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They’re free to the public. For those interested, this will be a good opportunity to catch up and become more informed. As filmmaker Anne Keala Kelly noted (see my 10/9/09 post “Wrongful occupation of Hawaii”), the Hawaiian activists are on the map, but they are all over the map. I’m planning to attend some of the talks so I can make some informed decisions for myself. The Hawaiian Studies center is a safe environment, and all are welcome. Some details about the speakers and the topics are on the Calendar of Events page of the following website:
A hui hou! Malama pono!
“Guardians of Tradition” are we, I was reminded last evening. The event: a gathering of Punahou School alumni to hear a lecture by kumu Hattie Eldredge Phillips at Kauihelani, the Hawaiian resources center of the Case Middle School.
Hattie is of the well-known Eldredge family that has touched the students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni of Punahou for generations—as student leaders, teachers and coaches.
In front of last night’s audience, she introduced her brother Pal, who teaches first graders, her very good friend and colleague Malia Ane, who teaches grade 3, and Malia’s mother Marilyn Ane, retired kindergarten teacher. The Ane family is equally dedicated to Punahou. Each would take the microphone to share stories and mele (songs) about Punahou traditions and how they came to be, reliving the journey we alumni were all so fortunate to be a part of. None of what she does is done alone, Hattie said. The others on stage with her and ke Akua were her allies.
It was a bittersweet moment when Hattie prefaced that the empty rocking chair draped with lei was to be for her brother David who passed over the day before. Dave Eldredge retired from Punahou after 40 years as an athletic coach and teacher. He established the Hawaiian studies program at Punahou and designed the school’s fabulous Holoku Pageant.
The Holoku Pageant was how I first met Dave—Mr. Eldredge—who was the adviser to the Hawaiian Club when I was a student, and his sister Hattie, who was one class ahead of me and taught all the hula. Part of the philosophy of teaching hula and mele to students was/is that the students will in turn teach the dance and music to others, thereby helping to perpetuate Hawaiian culture. And this has been happening for all the time Mr. Eldredge, and now Hattie, Pal, and Malia have spent at Punahou. Mr. Eldredge would be proud of Hattie’s program that was dedicated to him last night.
Some highlights:
The entire Eldredge family, though grieving, was present at Kauihelani, a thoroughly modern Hawaiian resource center facility that is Hattie’s domain. Seventh graders have a huge and great place to learn Hawaiian values, history, tradition, activities, and culture. There they can connect with real events happening in the community.
Pal Eldredge, who has researched the history of Punahou School, showed us some interesting, old photos of campus, gave us the correct lyrics for the alma mater “Oahu-a” and played guitar.
Marilyn Ane (Class of ’48) told how she started the “Flaming P” tradition to generate school spirit.
Malia Ane, also known as “Queen of Mele,” led the gang in a group duet of “Pupu Hinuhinu” and “Maile Lei.” It was Malia who started the tradition of teaching Hawaiian songs to the elementary grades.
Leilehua Phillips, Hattie’s daughter and past queen of the Holoku Pageant, performed a hula. Hattie inherited the directorship of the pageant from Dave few years ago.
We all sang a medley of Punahou fight songs. The women—Hattie, Malia, and Marilyn—were football song- and cheerleaders, no surprise!
And the special request from the audience that brought the house down: that Marilyn Ane lead the alumni audience in the cheer “Geeve ’em the hash, the hash, the hash” as the video camera rolled. It was hilarious! I know, it’s something you had to be there for, and I’m sure Dave was. “E Aunty, you still got it!”
We are shown the way by those who came and went before us. We have only to listen for their guidance, follow in their footsteps and teach our children. That was Hattie’s message, and it came through loud and clear.
Mahalo!
Rebekah’s Studio 
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