[ MAUKA MAKAI ]

Herb Kane's painting of American jet ace Richard Bong's
P-38 Lightning over a flaming Ki-61 Hien "Tony" fighter.
It was Bong's 22nd aerial victory.

Aviation art
seeking a home

DRAWN & QUARTERED

Graphic Arts As Literature

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By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com

Here's a kind of follow-up to the column a couple of weeks ago about aviation art. One of Hawaii's practitioners of aerial artistry is Herb Kane, the Big Island historian and illustrator. Kane is best known for his fantastically detailed ancient Hawaiian canoes and Western sailing ships and his work with Hawaiian musicians and kupuna.

But he likes painting airplanes, too.

It's a personal interest. Commissioned a few years ago to paint some historical works for the James Norman Hall museum in Tahiti, Kane found that the painting of airplanes was part of the deal. Hall, one of the co-authors of "Mutiny on the Bounty," was an aviator in the Great War, and Kane took a crash course in SPADs, Nieuports, Halberstadts, Fokkers and Albatros aircraft, learning some surprising things, like that the German camouflage on Albatros-built fighters was violet-purple and lime green.

His interest sparked by the Hall images, Kane decided to paint an aviation picture for himself. He grew up in Minnesota, a neighbor of American ace Richard Bong, and always had it in his head to paint an image of Bong's P-38 Lightning fighter. Bong remains America's leading ace with 40 air-to-air kills. He died testing jets.

Kane began to read about Bong and contacted the family. He settled on Bong's 22nd victory, flaming a Ki-61 Hien "Tony" fighter as the sun sets over the South Pacific. He then had an unusual dilemma for an artist who can barely keep up with commissions: What to do with it? A temporary home was found at the Pacific Aerospace Museum in Honolulu Airport.

But the Department of Transportation has finally made it impossible for the museum to continue operating. The painting needs a home. Kane, a history educator at heart, would prefer that it be placed in a site where the public can learn what it was like to fly combat during the Pacific War.

The Air Force base at Hickam, unfortunately, does not take items on loan, although acquisition by the Air Force Art Program is a long-range possibility.

Right now, the painting is safely housed at the new Star-Bulletin offices. We're entertaining suggestions on Mr. Kane's behalf. Write or e-mail bburlingame@starbulletin.com.

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