Proverbs in paint

Artist Martin Charlot filled his mural with images of everyday life, and ageless words of wisdom

STORY SUMMARY »

"Eh, you somebody."

On this small piece of land, it's an everyday happening to run into those we know, used to know or don't really know but feel like we do: a football star, a local TV personality.

'Local Traffic Only' Works by Martin Charlot, Eric Chandler, Takeo and Penny Taylor-Beardow On exhibit: Through Jan. 31 Place: Louis Pohl Gallery, 1111 Nuuanu Ave. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays Call: 521-1812 or visit louispohlgallery.com » Also: Martin Charlot will discuss the works of himself and his father, Jean Charlot, at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow at Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii-Manoa. Tours of the Jean Charlot Collection on the fifth floor will be given following the talk.

The beauty of artist Martin Charlot's "Hawaiian Folkways," a 5-by-24-foot mural that has decorated the Kaneohe McDonald's restaurant since 1985, is that it makes "somebody" out of regular Joes.

Charlot's work is peopled by more than 160 portraits of mostly everyday folks, many from Waiahole Valley where he lived for 40 years, who act out proverbs the artist collected. Windward residents invariably can point out a neighbor, a friend or even themselves in the mural, which features lush Waiahole settings. Charlot, son of famed artist Jean Charlot, wanted the piece to be a reflection of the valley.

"Whenever you're creating a mural, you're doing it for an audience of a specific place," he says. "Using real people made (the piece) much more meaningful for the community."

Now living in Los Angeles, Charlot is back in town for the release of "Local Traffic Only: Proverbs Hawaiian-Style," a book about the mural which features close-ups of the work accompanied by corresponding proverbs.

The book reflects sensibilities that Charlot says were cultivated during his time in Waiahole Valley.

"All my thinking, all my perceptions were very much formed by my life in Hawaii: a loving attitude from friends, a love of nature that's still very real to me."

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THERE'S a clear continuum that informs Martin Charlot's life and work. What many would consider incongruous ideas instead merge and flow for the muralist: Real life intertwines with the artistic, and the political transforms into the personal. And it all comes together to fuel art.

Charlot, who moved to Hawaii at age 4 and spent the next four decades here, is also a writer, actor, filmmaker, illustrator and educator now living in Los Angeles. Charlot's earliest claim to fame was being the son of Jean Charlot, the iconic muralist and University of Hawaii art professor.

The flow of the younger Charlot's life established itself early.

"In the olden days, people sent their children away to learn to be artists," he says. "I had the privilege to be born into that situation."

Apprenticing with his father led to a career in freelance art, and Charlot's work eventually took him for a short time to the Big Island, away from his children and home in Waiahole Valley. The separation was difficult for the father of four, who was accustomed to working at home. To continue providing a paternal presence, Charlot began sketching pictures that illustrated proverbs and including them in his letters to his children.

When he returned to Waiahole, he kept the idea of a proverb art project filed in his head, hoping to use it in a mural someday.

His chance came when he approached an old school buddy, Pat Kahler, head of McDonald's Hawaii, with the idea of painting murals in McDonald's restaurants as a way to provide public art. Kahler was receptive, and in 1985, Charlot manifested his proverb concept at the Kaneohe restaurant with "Hawaiian Folkways," a mural depicting a day in Waiahole Valley. He used many Waiahole residents to illustrate the more than 100 proverbs he had collected from all over the world.

The mural has become the subject of a book, "Local Traffic Only: Proverbs Hawaiian-Style," (Watermark, $19.95) released this month.

Charlot's deep investment in Waiahole Valley was nurtured during the 1970s, when he joined the grass-roots fight against developers for preservation of the valley. That political movement fused strong bonds among residents.

"We were very tight. We knew each other very well," Charlot says.

Setting the mural in Waiahole meant he could paint with "an insider's eye of what the local lifestyle was like. I knew the ins and outs of living in that community, the little details."

His Windward audience also would know, which was fundamental to the success of the artwork, Charlot says, because murals are made for specific audiences.

With that in mind, Charlot recruited family, friends and neighbors from Waiahole as models. But he also approached complete strangers "who looked exactly like who I wanted for a specific proverb."

"One guy was a telephone repairman who came to my house. I (recruited him) for 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' He acted out a proverb about talking, voice, communication.

"If I was walking along and saw someone I loved, I'd photograph them right on the spot," he says. "People were usually receptive."

Some of the models were well known locally, like writer Cobey Black and theater director Ron Bright. The most famous model, however, was from across the ocean: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a collector of Jean Charlot's art, acted out "A wise man is mightier than a strong man, wisdom is mightier than strength and a man of knowledge increases power."

THE MOTIVATING FACTOR for Charlot in incorporating centuries-old sayings for public art was to serve children.

"All too often the only scriptures or writings that American children retain are TV show jingles or song lyrics, a real grab bag of questionable wisdom," he writes in the introduction to "Local Traffic Only." The proverbs "remind us that a person in ancient Rome is very similar to someone in 21st-century Hawaii."

Charlot has been gratified to see youngsters show off to restaurant visitors their memorization of the proverbs. "Some have the whole mural memorized," he raves.

In looking back at his own childhood and the influence of his father, Charlot doesn't need to ponder.

"It's all positive," he says quickly. "I learned my craft from a wonderful, great, generous person. He was always a father before an artist, and it's what I always did.

"If you don't (put the children first), they won't let you paint," he says with a chuckle.

Today, Charlot moves with ease between the various forms of art he produces. "When you tap into the creative process, you can easily move between acting, writing and painting. They all help each other."

And what fuels ideas?

"When you're an artist, the life you live are the tools you make work for you. Waiahole was suddenly the visual for this mural. In writing stories, my day can become a scene I write," Charlot says.

"What I love about doing art is that nothing ever goes to waste."