KAPA‘A — This year, Leonora “Leah” Orr resolved to surrender herself to the children. The Eastside artist decided to take a break from her work — she’s been painting for 45 years — and host free art classes the first
KAPA‘A — This year, Leonora “Leah” Orr resolved to surrender herself to the children.
The Eastside artist decided to take a break from her work — she’s been painting for 45 years — and host free art classes the first and third Saturday of each month at The Children of the Land in Kapa‘a.
Her first Saturday of the month class, Coconut Wireless, focuses on creating handmade books with original stories, doodles, sketches, paintings and designs.
The third Saturday of the month class, CONCH (Creative Opening for New Collaborative Hands and Hearts), is an art class designed for children of all ages.
“Last class, I asked everyone to go around the room and say their age,” Orr said. “We have people from 3 to 70. It’s such a gift to be in a circle like that with different ages.”
Original watercolors from her students plus Orr’s sketches from the year she spent at Coco Palms will be available for auction starting at 1 p.m. today at The Children of the Land’s two-year anniversary celebration.
The event includes a traditional foods cook-off, crafts, Hawaiian and Polynesian dance plus lei, coconut oil and poi making. The outdoor entertainment will be free.
Orr decided to donate her sketches as an offering to The Children of the Land, since the center’s director, Phil Villatora, is a kahu (caretaker) at Coco Palms.
From 9 a.m. to noon on Mondays, Villatora leads a group of local and resident volunteers.
The group clears land while learning about the history of the area and the versatility of the coconut.
“I was given permission to go to Coco Palms and sketch for a year. These sketches honor the spirit and essence of Coco Palms,” Orr said.
The sketches features the hotel’s iconic scenery, including a meandering lagoon, wild lilies and the outside of the lobby surrounded by palm trees.
“Palms have been a long-standing theme in my life,” Orr said about the series.
Orr spent 10 years living in the Republic of Cameroon, a country in West Africa. She credits this time as a blessing, when she discovered a love of form and color.
“Whenever I would go to the village, it would be covered with palm fronds like a celebration,” Orr said.
To Orr, palms are living symbols of grace and survival.
“These plants survived all through Earth’s trials,” Orr said. “They are teachers to me of survival and celebration in the end.”
Like the palm fronds, Orr sees art spilling out from every aspect of life.
She has been teaching classes at different venues on the island for most of the 17 years she’s lived on Kaua‘i.
“I don’t have much separation between life and painting,” Orr said. “They are the same form to me.”
Orr will continue to offer her classes at The Children of the Land.
“I just feel so blessed,” Orr said. “These children are so beautiful. They are teaching me, in a way.”
• Andrea Frainier, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or afrainier@ thegardenisland.com.
