Port Allen restrooms are embarrassing
This week I had the misfortune to need to use the restroom at the Port Allen mall. It was approximately 6:30:pm and the tour boats would be arriving shortly. I was appalled at the deplorable condition I found there. It was absolutely filthy with trash all over the floor, the trash cans running over and no paper towels available.
How can you tour boat companies and shops possibly allow this? Who is responsible for the upkeep of these facilities? I see more and more boats going out filled to capacity-an experience of a lifetime for many to see our beautiful Napali Coast, so why must they end this trip on such a sour note by coming back to filthy restrooms? Can’t they be serviced between boat trips?
Also, as a resident who gives these places my business I shouldn’t have to worry about the cleanliness of the restrooms. Shame on you! Do you value your customers so little that you can’t provide clean restrooms?
Phyllis Jarke, Kekaha
Kauai is sitting on a color goldmine
It is sad to see so many of our intelligent and talented youth leave the island to find jobs elsewhere. It is sad also to hear about desperate youngsters taking their own lives. We have major opportunities here that have been neglected.
Here is some perspective: the ethnic Australian Aborigine artists are making millions with their traditional earth-tone paintings, some which nowadays sell for over $1 million apiece. Why are we not doing the same? Both cultures have long histories in their visual arts, but one is flourishing, while the other is wilting away.
The answer is simple and quite fundamental: the traditional Aborigine painters have adopted modern canvas and paper to make their traditional paintings with their traditional soil colors. Hawaiians have a strong tradition in painting on tapa paper, made from the bark of a wauke tree. It takes days to make just one sheet. I am told by a tapa maker that a 3’ x 3’ tapa sheet would cost around $1,000 if she charge for her time. This is a major bottleneck that is holding back the visual arts in Hawaii!
Kauai has had many volcanic eruptions over 5 million years. We have more soil types (10) per square mile than anywhere else in the world. The lava came from 20 miles below the ocean and weathered down to over 20 friendly, compatible colors. We’re sitting on a goldmine of beautiful colors hidden in plain sight that we pass by every day. These earth pigments have many fascinating properties that no commercial chemical colors can match. Since they are all minerals, they will out-last the canvases or papers and even the buildings they are in.
It has been shown that the younger you are, the more creative you are. The first artists to take advantage of these volcanic earth-tone colors are the most likely to become successful in their skills.
Many young artists have stopped by my gallery in Hanapepe to experiment with these colors, and some have produced paintings worthy of museums. I have even bought some of them and re-sold three so far. I will soon be closing my gallery and will have more time to devote to workshops, slide presentations and classes to show anybody who is interested how easy and rewarding it is to collect, refine, process and paint with these traditional Hawaiian colors that are now begging for an art Renaissance. Join the fun!
Arius Hopman, Hanapepe
Thank You Arius for this wonderful letter. I hope it inspires young artists and entrepreneurs!
Thanks you too for your decades of devotion to the arts, the community and the Aina.