Albert Wendt has spent the past three years in the UH-Manoa Department of English, teaching literature of the Pacific (co-taught with his partner, Reina Whaitiri), fiction and poetry. In between his Citizen's Chair duties, he has also spent time meditating on the Koʻolau Range, visible from his Manoa Valley home. We can view his contemplations on canvas, at the Louis Pohl gallery in downtown Chinatown.
I stopped by during the September First Friday and was lucky to catch Al and Reina during a rare lull in the crowds. Several of his paintings had been snatched up by an anonymous buyer from the West Coast. But it was a wall of paintings that were not for sale that I noticed; these, Al explained, were for his family - the top painting a soaring pattern of birds spread thick across an indigo and gold sky: "My mother," the artist explained, then pointed to an equally characteristic painting below: "My father." Other paintings showed Al's passion for the sky, for volcanoes, and the ocean but these - the "family" wall - stayed with me for the rest of the night.
1 comment:
that is pretty cool--the paintings for his family. Is he saying that each painting represents a member of his family or they are simply for them?
The birds in the picture posted on your blog look like lightning. I like that.. I usually hate paintings of landscapes, but these are beautiful
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