The Department of Accounting and General Services Director and Comptroller Keith Regan and artist Solomon Enos are inviting the public to help bring a mural to the basement parking garage of the Kalanimoku Building, where it will be one the first things many people see when they visit. The Kalanimoku Building houses offices for DAGS, as well as the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The community is invited to bring the mural to life by painting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29. Participants — who must be in middle school or older — do not need artistic experience to participate. Brushes and paint will be provided.
“What we're doing is we're creating an upena, a net, and it's based upon a process I've done at the Capitol Modern, where we're going to start making triangles of different colors,” Enos told Aloha State Daily this month.
The design uses 15 colors that represent “different kinds of environments and ecosystems and habitats right across the Hawaiian Islands,” he said. That includes representations of the red earth and deep ocean.
Enos is a renowned artist who has completed artwork for Google, Disney, Pixar, Amazon, Kamehameha Schools and more. He grew up in Mākaha Valley and has been making art for more than 30 years. His work is on display at Capitol Modern and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, among other locations. He is also the artist-in-residence for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, an agency attached to DAGS.
Base colors have already been added to the walls in preparation for the upcoming project in the basement of the parking garage for the Kalanimoku Building.
“On that day, [we’re] using random triangles, lines, and shapes, using rollers and using that same set of colors, but we're just going to mix them up,” Enos said. “People who have a light blue will be on areas that are not light blue. They'll be creating these triangles and this big conceptual net form.”
One of the biggest art challenges of projects like this is to make sure participants don’t add their name or an extra design, he said.
This is not Enos’ first art project that involves community participation. In fact, he led one last month, where students from three high schools came together to paint a large mural along Kamehameha Highway in Waipio.
Community art projects are not new, he said. Movies and theatrical performances are other examples of them, Enos added. Projects, like this mural, are also examples of how “community, collectively, can transform the world around them,” he said.
“You can transform this wall,” Enos said. “You can transform this world, but you can't do it by yourself.”
Parking in the lot in front of the painting area will be free. Use the entrance on Beretania Street to access the free parking spots.
Participants are asked to sign up via email at HawaiiSFCA@hawaii.gov, so the appropriate amount of painting materials will be available. Follow Enos on Instagram for updates on his art and other projects.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
