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GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Thirty whale sculptures decorated by Maui artists for a benefit fund-raiser are on display around the island. Maui residents Michaela Ramos, left, and Ariana Rivers examined a whale sculpture earlier this month at the Napili Plaza.




Maui enjoys a whale
of a fund-raiser

Valley Isle artists show 30 whale
sculptures at various locations


By Gary Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU >> It's more than a whale of an idea -- 30 to be exact.

Maui artists have painted and decorated 30 whale sculptures as part of a fund-raiser for nonprofit groups on the Valley Isle.

Their "Whale Mania Maui" artworks are on display through March 1 at various locations from the Wailea Shopping Center in south Maui to the Shops at Kapalua in west Maui.

The works range from a contemplative totemic piece to an ensembled "Whale To Do" whale, wearing makeup, a gown and wig, and holding a handbag.

In front of Honolua Store in west Maui, artist Andrea Smith's "Heart Song" has an ethereal vision of the whale's world with cherub's flying over the Earth.

art
GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
California visitor Christina Fabbian said she enjoyed looking at Andrea Smith's art work "Heart Song" in front of the Honolua Store.




"It's cool. I like the different designs," said Kristina Fabbian, a visitor from Fresno, Calif. "You always see something different when you look at it."

At the Napili Plaza, Maui residents Ariana Rivers and Michaela Ramos examined artist Ariana Guarnier's "Cow-Girl in Paradise."

Guarnier put a rhinestone saddle on the whale and added eyelashes to her.

"It's pretty. It makes you want to jump on it but you can't," Rivers said.

Maui Whale Mania organizer Kim Willis of Soroptimist International of West Maui said the idea is to promote art and whales, while raising money for good causes.

The artworks will be sold at auction March 15 at the Maui Tropical Plantation in Waikapu, with 50 percent of the proceeds going to charitable organizations picked by the buyers.

The group is developing a map listing the locations of each piece for those who want to take a tour of the sculptured whales.

"It really creates so much excitement," she said.

Willis said similar fund-raising projects have been done by groups in Kentucky and Seattle, with sculptures of horses and pigs, respectively.

art
GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Guy Buffet's painting "Remembrance of Things Past" at the Kapalua Bay Hotel is one of the pieces on display.




She said the projects have not only raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, but also generated enough interest for some to go from one location to the next to view the art.

"I think it has done very well in every city," she said.

The sculptures were cast in fiberglass to become either a 7-foot breaching humpback or a swimming model half the size, then handed over to artists to paint expressing a theme.

The sponsors of the sculptures, who pay $2,000 to $3,000 to shape and cast the whales in fiberglass, select the artists.

Some artists well-known on Maui have contributed their talents to the fund-raiser, including Wyland, Robert Lyn Nelson, Curtis Wilson Cost, and Allen, Smith, and Guy Buffet.

Buffet said he decided to participate in the project because it was for a worthwhile cause and also paid homage to the whales on Maui, a place where endangered humpbacks migrate in the winter.

"I thought it was a good idea. I was happy to take part in it," he said.

In Buffet's "Remembrance of Things Past" at the Kapalua Bay Hotel, the totemic patterns on the whale are painted in streams, some with clouds and stick figures, appearing as if a visualization of its earlier life.

K.C. Smith's "Mirror, Mirror on the Whale" at the Maui County Building in Wailuku gives the viewer pause to reflect on what a person sees when looking at one of the world's largest creatures.

More than 700 tiny mirrors have been placed on the sculpture, reflecting the urban landscape of buildings and streets.

"I wanted them to reflect about the impact our lives have on the whales themselves," she said.

For more information, contact Willis at 808-669-6867.



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