[ MAUKA MAKAI ]

COURTESY THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM Kids from the Kuhio Park Terrace PACT teen program, who were not screened for artistic ability, look on their finished work at The Contemporary Museum. They were inspired by the improvisational exercises taught by the pro artists who call themselves the Barnstormers. In the work, alien craft land in Hawaii.

B-storming

The Barnstormers bring their
whimsical art to the isles

The paint should be drying now. What started as the blank wall of a tennis court on the sprawling grounds of the Contemporary Museum in Makiki Heights is now splashed with primary reds and blues, plus shades of brown and gray, and pastel Latex paint of the type you can find in any hardware store in a mix of calligraphic and abstract forms.

The Barnstormers: Catalyst artists in residence Where: The Contemporary Museum, 2411 Makiki Heights Drive When: Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays through April (closed on major holidays) Admission: $5 adults, $3 seniors and students, children 12 and under free, and free every third Thursday of the month Call: 526-1322 or online at tcmhi.org

No, it wasn't an attack by vandals, but the work of an unusual collective of free-spirited painters from New York and Japan who, yesterday, just finished a dynamic, layered mural that they started working on nine days ago.

The Barnstormers, or B-stormers, brought a B-boy, hip-hop sensibility to their collaboration, always using as their foundation the stylistic and improvisational philosophy of graffiti writers.

Theirs is an ever-evolving landscape of bricklike spheres and spires, squiggly two-tone waves, wormlike forms etched in brown and blue, star sparks and even paint streaks thrown on to add a random statement to punctuate the Barnstormers' work.

This particular collection of B-stormers -- including founding members David Ellis and Kami, and their four public painting compatriots -- started freestyling on the court walls Sept. 24 and continued every morning until sundown. The group kicked off the museum's "O2art" international contemporary artist project series, featuring art in unconventional places.

As part of its outreach, the museum also started partnering with other local organizations. This time around, groups of teens from Kuhio Park Terrace's PACT (Parents and Children Together) family center were involved in the spirit of the Barnstormers' work in their own way.

With the help of Sergio Goes of the Cinema Paradise independent film festival, the teens also helped document the proceedings on digital video. (The Barnstormers' films, including "Letter to the President," were screened at this year's Cinema Paradise fest.)

The work-in-progress was also being captured by the Barnstormers on time-lapse photography, with their documentation to be shown in the museum's video gallery until the exhibition closes in April.

The Contemporary Museum's education curator, Wei Fang, got the idea to bring the kids and artists together when the Barnstormers started their residency. "We enjoy working with the adults and parents from the center, including the teens. Everyone is easy to work with and responsible, so I thought it would be perfect for the teens to get together with the Barnstormers, and they were open to it."

COURTESY THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM David Ellis, above, traces a design in gravel and sand on the former tennis court floor at The Contemporary Museum. The work will be a separate piece from the wall mural.

WHEN THE TEENS arrived at the museum, they were intimidated by the B-stormers in the way most kids are when dealing with strangers in unfamiliar surroundings. At first, they said, they "just wanted to watch and not mess up."

The artists had to ease the kids into their creative process. New York member Kiku Yamaguchi, comfortably tanned from working outdoors, said they started putting the kids through drawing exercises, which is what the Barnstormers do themselves before starting a project.

They started the kids "drawing whatever came to their heads for about two minutes, and then passing it on to the next person," Yamaguchi said. "It was a very loose warm-up, and then through the finished drawings, we picked what we liked."

The B-stormers, Yamaguchi said, "basically start with no sketches. ... We generally work out the colors and then layer over each other's previous painting."

The teens then freestyled on a section of the tennis court floor, starting with a teacup that morphed into a whimsical dining table setting. And like the Barnstormers do when they create their own "action paintings," the teens obliterated it with black paint, then started anew with an erupting volcano that was supposed to start something more local in feel, before ending up with an invasion of alien spaceships, complete with their own parking spaces.

"It went great and was incredible," Ellis said.

COURTESY THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM Kuhio Park Terrace teens start a drawing exercise at the prompting of the Barnstormers.

THE BARNSTORMERS started in 1999 with a mural painted on the side of a barn in Ellis' hometown of Cameron, N.C. He and Kami "did a jam session" on a piece that featured a bemused cow wrapped by stylized cloud patterns, with black speakers floating above, lining the top of the painting.

"We've worked both individually and collectively over the past five years," he said during a gallery talk by the Barnstormers on Wednesday night. "We do motion paintings, capturing them with time-lapse photography. The jam sessions can last several weeks, even months."

While the artists support themselves with other artistic endeavors (their reputation is such that they even did a series of Absolut Vodka national magazine ads), their "canvases," in addition to the sides of barns, have included private homes, 18-wheel truck containers, warehouse walls, floors in New York and parks in Japan and Europe.

"We rocked 'em," Ellis said with fond remembrance. "It felt like when I did graffiti as a kid -- now I'm 33!"

The B-stormers do occasionally display work in formal galleries, even doing three-dimensional pieces, like a 3-ton, functional sound system that Ellis is dismantling in a North Carolina museum. Made of discarded and scavenged refrigerators, washers and dryers, and chests of drawers, the speakers filled the museum with a special mix tape of the artists' favorite music. "It was like a patchwork quilt -- with 3,000 watts."

COURTESY THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM Teens from the Kuhio Park Terrace PACT program, at left, apply their creative visions to their first piece, which works off a teapot design.

MUSIC IS A metaphor for the Barnstormers' process. "Just like how (jazz pianist) Thelonious Monk operated in the recording studio, the first take is always the best, even though there could've been a missed note here and there. It's how it went down. It's all about the process, the movement. ... When we collaborate, we're always reacting to each other's work. There's definitely a hip-hop flavor behind what we do. ... It's like a B-boy battle."

Ellis moved from his small tobacco-farming hometown to New York 15 years ago to pursue his muse and be close to the hip-hop/graffiti scenes that had inspired him as a teen.

"But I was getting tired of chasing down galleries, so I called up everyone I knew, and we went down to North Carolina."

Intending to share his art skills with his Southern community, Ellis and the collective would, during the next five years, expand their reach, sometimes with as many as 27 artists working on one big piece, although Ellis says "something like a quintet is better -- you know, with three, four notes in sync, you get a nice chord."

Although there might be the occasional sour note and discord amongst the Barnstormers, Ellis says they're still friends and, besides, "tension can be a powerful thing, a motivator."

"I'm living the life I always wanted to do," he said. "You can't stop us!"

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Barnstormer Chen Jen puts her little star beside an unusual potbelly stove.

COURTESY THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM Barnstormer Mike Houston offers some observational advice to one of the teen participants.

COURTESY THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM Sasu adds her distinctive touch to the Barnstormers piece, painted on the walls of a tennis court on the grounds of The Contemporary Museum.

COURTESY THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM Chen Jen continues to freestyle on a spire ton the Barnstormers mural at The Contemporary Museum.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM On the cover: Chen Jen, an artist with the collective Barnstormers, works on a mural at The Contemporary Museum. The mural will be on display until April 2005.