New mural unveiling on Kauaʻi this Saturday

A 500-foot public mural in partnership with Capitol Modern will be unveiled at Common Ground Kauaʻi, a 63-acre regenerative farm located on what was once a guava plantation in Kīlauea, on the Garden Isle's north shore.

On Saturday, June 27, Common Ground Kauaʻi and Capitol Modern will unveil the mural to the public. The event starts at 3 p.m. There will be guided mural tours and a Q&A with the artists, as well as film screenings. Starting at 7 p.m., there will be music from a DJ and food sourced from the farm. Details.

Common Ground Kauaʻi is a regenerative farm, which means the farm grows its coffee, vegetables and native plants in a system that mimics the diversity of a tropical ecosystem and does not use imported fertilizers or pesticides. Capitol Modern, the official Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, is part of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts’ Art in Public Places Program.

“At Common Ground, the land isn’t the backdrop, it’s the teacher,” said Jennifer Luck, CEO of Common Ground Kaua‘i, in a written statement. “This opportunity isn’t separate from what we grow here or who we gather here. It’s the same conversation told on a different canvas. We’re grateful to our partners SFCA and Capitol Modern for seeing what’s possible here on Kaua‘i.”

The mural features the work of 11 artists — many of whom call Kauaʻi home — who were each asked to own a 50-foot section of the mural and add their individual works into a piece with the theme “An Imparting Landscape.”

“Impart means to make known; to communicate,” according to the farm’s website. “An Imparting Landscape reflects the way knowledge and tradition move through mentorship, memory and lived experience.”

When asked to describe the 500-foot mural in just a few words, artist Sanoe Stevenson-Egeland, who grew up on Kauaʻi and now lives in Seattle, picked: connective, collaborative and full of life. Her part of the project is titled “Go Where you Grow” and features a Toyota pickup, a symbol of home, she said.

“The opportunity to be at home working with other artists has been so special,” Stevenson-Egeland told Aloha State Daily in a written statement. “Coming home and having the time and space to paint in community has felt really warm and has made me hopeful that artists can thrive in Hawai’i, even in a small community like Kaua’i. It gives me hope that I’ll be able to move home in the future and have the opportunity to connect and share creativity with the people that have inspired me from the beginning.”

The featured artists for this collaboration include Solomon Enos, who is based on Oʻahu and is the current artist in residence for Capitol Modern. Kauaʻi-based artists participating in the mural include Bryce Baker, Kaplan Bunce, Matt Hoyme, Holly Kaʻiakapu, Taylor Lowe, Taylor Reinhold and Samuel Schryver. In addition to Stevenson-Egeland, joining them are: Tiffany Chow, who is based in Los Angeles, and Chris Miyashiro, who is based on Oʻahu.

Stevenson-Egeland uses composition and color to explore memory and longing. She moved to Seattle in 2016, right after graduating from high school, to pursue painting because she did not see many opportunities for her work where she had grown up.

Sources of inspiration for her part of the mural include Hawaiʻi truck culture, music, blue collar livelihood, local flora and a sense of longing and belonging, she said.

“As the project evolved, both the ideas and values behind the regenerative farm and our shared missions as artists bled into what I was making,” wrote Stevenson-Egeland. “There are so many unique ways that each of us are working toward a common goal, and inspiring one another to keep going.”

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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.