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A LEGACY OF KANEOHE LIFESTYLE

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
"Running Through Time," by artist Maile Yawata, was dedicated
in a ceremony yesterday at Castle High School along with the
student artwork "Faces of Castle."

Castle students
team up for
mural effort

A mural by advanced art students
and their mentor graces the wall
of the school's new gymnasium

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

FOR Castle High School junior Andrew Swenson, art imitates life -- especially in Windward Oahu.

As one of the student artists who created a mural that now graces the walls of his school's new gymnasium, Swenson hopes the artwork will be a legacy of lifestyle in Kaneohe.

"Personally, it's kind of pleasing to me to come back to the gym and look at it, look at something that I've done and accomplished, be proud of it," Swenson said.

Castle High School celebrated the works of the student artists and their artist mentor, Maile Yawata, whose mural also hangs in the new athletic home of the Knights, at a dedication yesterday in the gymnasium.

"It's nice to realize your own vision of the artwork, and that's in itself wonderful, but artists work alone a lot," Yawata said. "So to be in a situation where you're interacting with a lot of bright and talented students and finding out and learning about their lives and how they feel about things, it's pretty exciting."

While Yawata was coming up with ideas for her mural, she taught for one semester at Castle through a state program.

"I worked with the students to come up with a mural of their own," Yawata said. "They (the students) were in an advanced drawing and painting class. They signed up for the class knowing that they would be working on a mural with me or some kind of project with me."

The projects came about through the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts' Art in Public Places program, which commissions works of art for schools.

The foundation held several dedication ceremonies this month for commissioned works of art for schools such as Kaunakakai Elementary, Heeia Elementary and Castle.

Yawata's 10-by-50-foot mural, entitled "Running Through Time," depicts an athlete running through the history of Kaneohe.

Scenes depict the Koolau mountain range and an environment of taro cultivation and koa and kukui trees. The scenes change to more modern crops of pineapple and sugar cane.

The mural also symbolizes the many cultures that enrich the area.

The student piece, entitled "Faces of Castle," shows different slice-of-life views of teen activities.

Swenson and four other students who worked on the project -- Teddy Duldulao, Michelle Yoshida, Scott Naauao and Kerilynne Savea -- were on hand for yesterday's dedication.

"They asked us to do sports, stuff that Castle doesn't have, so we didn't put, like, soccer people or basketball sports," Yoshida said. "We had to do other things, like skateboarding and people listening to things."

The mural shows youths skateboarding, skating, canoeing and listening to music. One scene shows Kahaluu's Hygienic Store with a pickup truck carrying surfboards.

"I think school is a perfect forum for introducing art," Yawata said. "It really teaches you a lot about the way real life is going to be."

Swenson agreed that working on the project was more than just a class assignment for the students; it gave them hands-on experience on a major project and taught them teamwork.

"Everybody had their own individual ideas for this, and then when everybody had that set, we just meshed it all together."

Besides living in Kaneohe and working on the art project, Yawata's other connection to the school is her son, Ben, a Castle junior.