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Aloha shirts There's no mistaking artist Charles Valoroso's affection for Hawaii, aloha shirts and 1950s cars.
tell a story
Kauai artist's paintings
of aloha shirts depict
whimsical island scenesBy Tim Ryan
Star-BulletinThe more than two dozen paintings in his "Tropical Hi-Jinx" exhibit through Jan. 26 at Hawaii Pacific University's Windward campus art gallery are aloha shirts, where the print tells a story, and big-finned, sturdy bumpers, long-passed Buicks, Cadillacs and Chevrolets reminiscent of creative automotive times.
The prints and paintings include watercolors, oils on canvas, and acrylics on canvas ranging in szie from 5-by-7 to 18-by-24, and in price from $15 to $3,500.
The Kauai-born artist uses the aloha shirt as a subject matter for paint, not for any particular escapist or fantasy notion. The shirts, many depicted to be on a hanger, have Hawaii scenes of surfing, Diamond Head, steamship arrivals, hula dancers, and fishing. A couple long-sleeved aloha shirt paintings have either golfers or swordfishing on the two front pockets. The whimsical "Valley of the Lost Tribe" piece, $2,500, shows a scene of waterfalls, high peaks, and a sparkling shoreline.In the car pieces, "Bel-Air," "Candy Apple," and "Bazookas" highlight the elaborate fin designs, heavy chrome bumpers and massive fenders of the 1950s.
"Stylistically, these paintings could be labeled as realism, but I work with mixed resources and makes things up as I progress with the work," Valoroso said in a telephone interview from Boston where he's vacationing. "I'm interested in transforming an existing object and depicting it in another format with the illusions of form, light source and cast shadow."
On View
What: "Tropical Hi-Jinx," works by Charles Valoroso
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