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ALOHA DISPLAYS TRUE COLORS
Students painting
mural as a gift
to community
The vivid painting transforms a
By Rod Ohira
Natatorium construction wall
Star-BulletinA Canadian woman was watching as some Kalani High School students worked on a mural between Kaimana Beach and the Waikiki Natatorium.
She liked what she saw.
"It's fabulous," Darlene Teranishi of Vancouver, B.C., said yesterday. "The self-expression is beautiful. This is art. It's definitely a plus."
The colorful 8-foot-high mural, featuring floral and ocean scenes, is being painted on 32 plywood panels of a 128-foot-long construction wall erected as part of the natatorium's restoration.
"We wanted to do something for the community, to make people smile and pay attention to how beautiful Hawaii is," said Kalani senior Sumire Takuma, 18. Takuma, who hopes to continue her art education in England after graduating, is among a handful of Kalani students who have been spending two hours a day Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on the mural.
"Through this picture of nature, we're trying to express beauty, order and innocence because we're still growing up," she said.
Joe Lileikis, a Kalani social studies teacher and a former University of Hawaii swimmer, pitched the idea of doing a community service project to his American Problems students last semester.
"We wanted our kids to know that it's important for people to be proud of something," he said. "I think it's important as a teacher to encourage that."
Lileikis and a friend working on the natatorium restoration -- Rick Heltzel of Healy Tibbitts Contractors Builders Inc. -- were swimming one day at the beach and came up with the idea of painting a mural.
Healy Tibbitts cleared the way for students to begin priming the wall in October, and final approval to create the mural was granted in December."We painted the wall blue in October, that was the first step," Lileikis said.
"It took a while to come up with a design. We recruited the best artists in the school to come up with the design."
Raymond Lee, 18, who is more comfortable expressing himself through art than with words, has been a major contributor. The senior drew most of the designs to be painted on the sky-blue background.
"I like to do sketching so this project appealed to me," said Lee, who considers art a hobby. "I like the palm trees and the blue and brown colors."
Lee is especially fond of the large mountain-range scene painted on the last set of panels at the ocean-end of the mural.
"If you look behind the wall, it's the same scene," Lee said, indicating the Waianae mountain range in the distance.Freshman Marci Nagasawa also contributed to the design.
"The idea was to do something tropical, and I got to do most of the flowers," said Nagasawa, who at 15, is the youngest member of the team.
Nagasawa said she wants to pursue a career in art painting and embraced the mural project as an opportunity to do something on a large scale.
The students believe their work is a positive example of young people's art, which should not be confused with the negative expressions of graffiti.
"Graffiti is not art, it's just fancy writing," Nagasawa said. "Art has meaning. The mural is saying what we think of Hawaii."
Beach-goers such as Bailee Steele, a 17-year-old visitor from Sacramento, Calif., appreciate the effort.
"It just makes the beach that much prettier," Steele said.
About 60 students participated in priming the wall and 12 have been active in doing the rest, according to Lileikis.
The project is expected to be finished by the end of the month.
"I think it's important to allow kids a voice in the community by giving them an opportunity to share their talents," Lileikis said.
"What they're saying in the mural is this is what we see, and we want to share it with you."
