Burning the midnight oil as we refine the stained glass portraits on the Aloha Wall (One) Julia is my long-time trusted assistant and dearest friend, without whom none of this work could flow! Mahalo Julia! Julia
is always here for me even when we work long hours, days and weeks!
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WE ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE ~
WE INSTALLED THE FIRST TWO KUPUNA
ON THE WALL IN STAINED GLASS MOSAIC!
Only you will ever get to see the action behind the scenes in this Photo Journey!
Winter Solstice 2022
Aloha Dear Ones!
Happy Holidays!
The best news in the world news bringing the planet into the light just as the Winter Solstice 2022 unfolded:
At the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), Montreal, nearly every country on Earth (190) signed on to the 30 x 30 Plan, a groundbreaking comprehensive agreement to protect 30% of Earth’s Land and Sea by 2030. The international deal includes sweeping, concrete, measurable protections toward 50% protection by 2050.
Currently, only 17% of Earth’s land and 8% of the ocean is protected. This is a huge step forward for life on Earth. What seemed impossible when Rama and my series of endangered species paintings called THE RAMA EXHIBITION was featured at the World Conservation Congress in 2016 (as directed by the late conservation giant E. O. Wilson) is happening! These commitments go a long way toward fulfilling the UN goal of an ecological civilization ~ building a shared future for all life on Earth. Hallelujah!
The mural and our guiding kupuna stand for this ideal. It’s happening. Please be a part of the flow where you live and breathe!
We hope this finds you and yours in excellent health and spirits as the days grow longer and the challenges we face in the world call forth our light to work toward brighter days to come. The ancients revered the Winter Solstice. While it is the darkest day and longest night, the Solstice brings forth the spring and the ‘coming of the sun’.
May your new year be filled with celebration and gratitude for the abundance and grace in our lives.
Mahalo for joining us in this photo journey of our Kona Airport Mālama ‘Āina mural progress (July ~ now)! Few will ever see these behind-the-scenes shots of how we do this work! This is a sneak peek of things to come and the message of the Kupuna to sing forth.
Work on the mural is varied, labor intensive, and non-stop. However, we have enjoyed working with volunteers and enjoying the growing enthusiasm from passersby.
Currently, we have installed two Kupuna on the Aloha Wall in stained glass mosaic. Mahalo nui to Kumu Keala Ching and Uncle Earl Regidor, who are very wise and dear to me. Thank you both! I have learned so much from constructing your portraits of benefit to all those to come. These portraits are, at once, experimental and leading edge, and an ancient technique. It was not until they were fully installed that they could speak to me and guide me to perfect the portraits to come.
Kumu Keala symbolizes the ancient and timeless ALOHA. He chants open the mural. Uncle Earl represents the perpetuation of ALOHA and sings for the forests. More on their essential message in future editions.
Please share this with those who love Hawai’i, Indigenous wisdom, the land, and the future!
Love and Aloha
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I am thrilled, honored, and thankful for the opportunity to create this mural! Thank you to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, my Art Advisory Committee, my wonderful Project manager, Architect Aaron Ackerman, my tiny but mighty talented team, and the entire Kona Airport staff for your ongoing support and participation! This is a community mural project.
After a month of solid work, Calley is thrilled to install our first two Kupuna in stained glass.
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Apprentice Atticus Wiggins working to make shoes out of glass.
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Calley's long-time stained glass partner, Lamar Yoakum, is the one who does all the excellent cutting, grinding, and fitting of thousands of pieces of glass. Thank you Lamar!
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Amy O’Meara and Calley’s right hand woman, Julia Fairchild work on Forest Kupuna Yvonne’s and Keoki’s portraits. |
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Calley and Amy work on Forest Kupuna.
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Calley sets the Mylar patterns on Kupuna Earl Regidor’s spectacular ukulele.
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Author of Love your Mother, a children's book about taking care of Mother Earth, Veronika Bajwa of Kaua'i, takes an afternoon to work on the Pueo.
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Leah Koller, visiting from Pennsylvania, works on the Pueo. |
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Painting on glass is a painstaking labor of love that Calley is constantly evolving. It starts with a detailed drawing, is enlarged onto Mylar and Vellum, and traced onto glass with vitreous paints. Glaze by glaze, shadows are built up and fired. |
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Coloring the mylar pieces before they are cut and placed on the glass has proven an invaluable new step in the process of keeping track of which piece is which glass color once cut apart to be placed on the glass. Especially in something as intricate as the wings of an owl, it's our only hope! Our process continues to evolve as we learn from each figure. Can you imagine thousands of puzzle pieces with no color guide? So now we color code our pencils to match the glass and hope we remember which is which!
We gratefully acknowledge our patron Nancy Mueller of Kukio for sponsoring the Pueo and inviting you to stand with her in sponsoring a Special Element.
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Gabriel "Fara" Tolno's band, Fanye, visited the glass shop to learn about the mural.
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Julia cutting the mylar pattern for Pwo, Master Navigator/community educator Chadd ‘Õnohi Paishon, standing for the forests.
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Mahalo Veena Hopson for popping in for an afternoon of mural work.
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Here Calley is checking the size and fit of Pwo, Master Navigator Milton Shorty Bertelmann on Wall 5. |
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Inspired by her love of Pueo, high school counselor Jamie Gomer travels to the Big Island to work on the Pueo from upcountry Maui! Here Jamie is working with Calley on Pomai.
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Calley’s son and right-hand man, Noa Eads, ‘back butters’ glass with thinset in preparation for installation on the WEDI concrete board.
We are thrilled to have Chris Springer on our team, leading the way on all aspects of the mural installation. A long-time expert marble, granite, and tile professional, his attention to detail and meticulous work are beyond compare. So whatever Chris says, we do!
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This is a lightbox view of Keala's face and hair.
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We’re proud of the door. One of the least desirable things one could have in the middle of a mural is a busy security door. In Calley's imagination, the door first became a stained glass tako (octopus), a painted one, a turtle, then a reef, a door-sized decal of a painting. Finally, true to her Pratt Institute design studies and its function, it became - a door!
Mahalo to NAN for their patience and excellence as they added one aspect of the stainless steel after another.
Mahalo Scott and Chris of Kona Sherwin Williams, who did a fantastic job matching industrial water-soluble urethane with our mineral paint!
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Even as we intensively prepared for the installation of Wall 1, we kept Lamar busy cutting and grinding pieces for the kupuna on Wall 5. At the beginning of the new year, we will complete the Voyager Wall 5, with Chadd 'Ōnohi, Pomai, and Shorty Bertelmann. |
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Revisiting the original kupuna portraits which had been done for months was gratifying and exciting. Here, Julia painstakingly cleaned off every fingerprint, speck of dust, and number, and refined the grout line spacing in preparation for mounting glass onto the WEDI high-tech concrete backer board. |
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Fabulous singer/songwriter Buckman Coe of Vancouver BC and Airport Engineer/Construction Manager sweetheart Marc Botticelli painstakingly packed each of the heavy mosaic segments into the truck box to transport to the airport. Buckman’s music echoes the message of the Kupuna. Check him out on Spotify.
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We drove the mural onto the tarmac to deliver it to the wall. Thank you Dexter Espinueva, Airport Security Lead for all your help and support. We also want to thank David Bell, Paul Knoll, and staff.
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We were HAPPY to learn that this outlet could be eliminated and that Keala's waterfall would cover it! The detals are never-ending and the 'magic' keeps happening.
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First piece in place! This was truly a momentous occasion.
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Many thanks to Sandi Playsted of Victoria BC for braving the hot sun to photo document our first day of installation! |
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Thank you to our wonderful supporter Cy Duvauchelle (in blue directing the team!) Kona Airport Assistant Superintendent, and our leader, Superintendent Chauncey Wong Yuen for all their support in this epic project! MAHALO! |
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After one marathon day of installing the first two Kupuna, Calley, Buckman, and Julia spent the next two weeks filling the anchor pieces, refining the grout lines, concreting the edges, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and painting the edges to match the background.
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We want to thank 'Iwalani McCalla for her help in fundraising and inspiring interest from United Airlines executives.
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BE A PART OF THE FLOW!
THIN BLUE LINE PLAQUE
GIFT CERTIFICATES
If you are looking for a uniquely meaningful gift for your people, please consider giving them custom recycled blue glass plaques on the mural's symbolic THIN BLUE LINE. This 'river of life' runs through the mural and the columns for 321’. Your favorite quote or your river, lake, forest, sacred place, or people can be honored here, adding to the mana of the mural.
THE THIN BLUE LINE is our key element of connection to Water, which is life. From Hawai’i Astronaut Ellison Onizuka’s perspective, the living thin film in which we live (the Biosphere), looks like a Thin Blue Line around our planet. On the mural, this lifeline will be composed of recycled, fired blue glass plaques made from Waimea's Moa Kitchen, which donates all of their sake bottles.
The plaques will be inscribed with the words you request.
You are invited to put yourself and yours on the line and be a part of the flow! Donations for individual plaques begin at $100, and all gifts are welcomed and tax-deductible through our 501(c)3, The Rama Tree.
TO THE THIN BLUE LINE
PLEASE CONTACT CALLEY
or click on the links for further details/donations/submission forms
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Above is a sample of the letter that you can present with your gift certificates for plaques on The Thin Blue Line. Once your people
receive their gift, they can send us their unique inscription to be engraved on their plaque.
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These are sake bottles donated by Waimea restaurant, Moa Kitchen, as they are placed in the kiln to melt. It takes two bottles to form each 3" x 5" plaque. Below are a few we have already engraved. |
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The Kupuna directed that the walls be connected by the element of water.
Lead painter, Noa suggested this graphic to connect the columns.
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AND FINALLY,
THE WALLS AS THEY APPEAR TODAY
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Thank you to photographer, Thomas Holguin. |
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BE A PART OF THE FLOW!
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR INTEREST! By following our photo journeys once or twice a year, you are a part of the flow.
- If you have wisdom or skills to share, please let us know.
- If you know someone who would enjoy following us, let them know.
- If you know a journalist who’d like to follow this story, please call them.
- If you know a company or foundation that might like to sponsor an element or wall through our non-profit, please contact us.
Calley - (808) 987-7003
Julia - (808) 557-0363
Who do you know who would love to hear about this project?
Please forward this to them!
If a picture is worth a thousand,
you just read 157,000 words!
(with three more below!)
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KOA AIRPORT MURAL OHANA
So many hands have worked on this mural, thus far, and here they are! We treasure our Ohana of Community Collaborators.
We acknowledge their invaluable contribution and give 1001 mahalos!
OUR CORE TEAM
CALLEY O’NEILL
NOA EADS
JULIA FAIRCHILD
LAMAR YOAKUM
JEREMIAH HOLQUIN
We gratefully acknowledge and thank
HAWAI’I STATE FOUNDATION ON CULTURE AND THE ARTS and Calley’s extraordinary Art Advisory Committee and Project Manager, Aaron Ackerman
HSFCA and HAWAI’I DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ART ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ELLISON ONIZUKA KONA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AT KEAHOLE’s LEADERS and OPERATIONS and SECURITY TEAM: Superintendent, Chauncey Wong Yuen, Assistant Superintendent, Cy Duvauchelle and their remarkable staff, and Security Team. Mahalo David Bell, Dexter Espinueva, Lahela Lau. Mahalo Paul Knoll for your support and thank you to the entire staff as well as the TSA team for your interest and for sharing this with your people.
Mahalo nui especially to OUR BELOVED MURAL KUPUNA, those on and behind the wall guiding the mural and us to live in harmony with nature.
And our COMMUNITY COLLABORATORS,
including all those who have helped us thus far:
ALEX ECKHART
AMY O’MEARA
ATTICUS HIGGINS
BUCKMAN COE
ELI O’MEARA
ANNABELLE URIBE
(The late) BEVERLY ARNTZEN
BRYAN GAZAUI
DINA ALOHA
DOMINIC HILMAN
ELIZABETH ROSE
‘IWALANI MC CALLA
JAMIE GOMER
JAZMIN HICKS
JEFF and JAKE CLOSS
KEN CANNATA
LEE GLENNAN MOTTER
LEIANNA and BRYAN GAZAUI
MARC BOTTICELLI
MICHAEL HESS
MIKE BURNETT, TNC
MOA KITCHEN
THE amazing NAN TEAM
NORTHWEST ART GLASS, Seattle:
Richard Mesner, Matt and Missy Laitala, Joe and crew
OLIVER ZEICHNER
PEACH GODDARD
RACHEL WALKER
REDWING KEYSAR
SANDI PLAYSTED
SHELLEY REAGAN
THOMAS HOLQUIN
VEENA HOPSON
VIRGIL MACY, WEST HAWAI’I CONCRETE
YASI ZEICHNER
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CALLEY'S ORIGINAL ART FOR SALE
My beloved mom passed away last January and I have just received these two large paintings back. If you know someone who wants to support my work, has a big open wall, a big open heart, and needs a strikingly unique work of art, please call Calley. These are rare originals.
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TUT, A WOMAN?
4' x 4' original watercolor with a fine handcrafted frame
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EAST WEST ONE
4' x 6' Politec glaze painting on Canvas
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