Kinetic sculptures

Big Island artist Mary Lovein documents her love of chameleons in a book

COURTESY MARY LOVEIN, FROM "CHAMELEONS IN THE GARDEN" One of Mary Lovein's friends enjoys an afternoon shower in her Mount Hualalai garden on the Big Island. Lovein published "Chameleons in the Garden" from some 5,000 pictures she took of the critters that populate her yard.

Mary Lovein, artist, photographer and proprietor of the Holualoa Gallery since 1990, experienced a kind of passion five years ago that surely can be characterized as unique.

Her heart palpitations weren't fueled by a hunky new neighbor or the latest red-hot sports car. Rather, Lovein simply looked out her window one day and saw, for the first time, the Jackson chameleon.

"I never saw anything move like that," she said dreamily. "They're a living art."

In those five years, Lovein has kept a journal of the critters that populate her property, set on the side of Mount Hualalai on the Big Island. "I can see them from every single window of my house," she said proudly.

Lovein shot some 5,000 photographs of the critters, the best of which she turned into a coffee-table book titled "Chameleons in the Garden."

It's the artist's way of sharing the beauty she sees in her outdoor friends.

"But I sometimes feel they're observing me," she waxed philosophically, "since I'm the one in the enclosure."

COURTESY MARY LOVEIN, FROM "CHAMELEONS IN THE GARDEN" A 1-minute-old newborn hangs on tight to a twig.

COURTESY MARY LOVEIN, FROM "CHAMELEONS IN THE GARDEN" A head-on shot of a Jackson chameleon, above, shows off its pointy horns.

COURTESY MARY LOVEIN, FROM "CHAMELEONS IN THE GARDEN" An adult female nips the horns of a male in Lovein's guava tree.