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Punahou Class of 1959 - Creative Art
Here are artistic works created by our classmates.
Now in our 60's, we have more time to devote to the development of new and latent areas of interest and self-expression. Many of us as Sheila Fletcher have been producing world class artwork for years. Others of us are only recently discovering hidden talents and interests in creative art including painting, sculpture, music, writing, poetry, photography, and other areas of artistic and creative expression. Some of us are taking classes, some are studying under teachers and mentors, while others of us are just creating on our own.
This section is under construction.
Please send us photo's and descriptions that tell us about your own creative artwork.
Mahalo!
Sheila Fletcher Kriemelman
John Haines
Susan Hata O'Connor
Jon Larson
Dick Moseley
Karl Polifka
Others are promising new contributions soon.
Sheila Fletcher Kriemelman
" Re the Art in Our 60's site... I'm assuming that most of us, including myself, were activists in the 60's and on. It is therefore natural that our activist sensibilities are reflected in our art whether conscious or unconscious. In the 60's I was engaged in anti-war art and activities (I count Andrew Young, Coretta King and Julian Bond as friends). It was Art's reactivation that fueled the fire. In the 70's you could say I was a militant feminist and my work and my life expressed that particular passion for equal rights and equal pay for women. In the 80's it was AIDS awareness and gay pride. (I was a card carrying member of ACT UP and when I'm home regularly march in the Gay Pride Parade to this day.). In the 90's I perceived my holocaust project as activist art as the mission was as much to educate young people as well as express my outrage. There are no coincidences. Peace, Sheila "
web links...
Holocaust Series: Dachau 1933-1945
more links will be forthcoming......
from www.paintingsdirect.com Born in 1941 in Honolulu, HI, United States
1987, Long Island University, Southampton College, Southampton, NY
1983, M.S. in Studio Art, College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York
1981, 1982, Women's Institute, Houston, TX
1981, 1982, Glassel School of Fine Art, Houston, TX
1963, M.S. in Art Education, University of Missouri, Columbia, MS
Sheila Kriemelman Dachau 1933-45
The Model Camp. Experiments. Hell. Death. Dachau.
She visited and was transformed by the experience. She was compelled to express how she felt about the horror, the madness. To exorcise the evils through her art to get to the other side. Compelled to document what she saw because what she saw was real, and to disallow us any denial of the harrowing reality. These paintings are about universal suffering. And survival. And endurance. And death. They are about mothers and their children, young people, old people, all people.
She is an assiduous researcher. Her written text is copied precisely from historical texts, posters, and letters. The figures are real--real images from authentic archival photographs. She is interpreting them, altering them. The numbers are documented deaths from Nazi files. Kriemelman is painting from a driving desire to document that which revisionist historians choose to believe never happened. With this work, she is journeying through the undeniable, immeasurable, unsettling realm of human iniquity to once again remind those too young to even imagine it ever could.
And so, she paints The Beast. The Nazi. The embodiment of malevolence. The layers unfold. Son of God. She paints a beautiful young man. A medical experiment. A Christ figure hangs suspended, bearing innocence and death at the hand of The Beast. Pieta. A boy and his mother. Another woman's son becomes the artist's own as she expresses the ultimate grief, the brutal loss of her child. The birth, life, and death. They are all real and riveting. The Final Solution. They are waiting in quiet resignation. The skillfully articulated figures speak through their eyes, their hands, and postures. We feel their humanness, the powerlessness. We see men who will become numbers as they join the wasted. She demands that we acknowledge them, look deeply into their souls, and know that they were here. The artist cries out simultaneously with her subjects. Kriemelman says emphatically, "This is real. I am real. Look at me. Don't tell me I went through this for nothing." She leaves her mark.
All her work emanates from her core belief in the spiritual in art--the power of art to move and raise both individual and group consciousness. Through her incisive and passionate treatment of the subject, the factual reality of it is never obfuscated by a naturally heart-wrenching emotional response to it. We must see the truth.
Audrey Rose Wyler is a New York City based art critic.
John Haines - paintings
One morning about 6 or 7 years ago, I took my trusty Canon 35mm down to Central Avenue in Panama City in search of interesting folks who might not object to my snapping their picture for possible future use in a painting. Among several likely candidates, I ran into this Ecuadorian girl in a nearly transparent blouse, bedecked with gold chains, leaning back against a parked car in front of her table full of artifacts. It was fairly early as I recall, and the bright morning sun created some terrific shadows on her face and blouse, which came out very nicely in the photo. That photo remained in the box of 500 or so shots I keep in the studio and review periodically to see if anything rings a creative bell. Then, while in Virginia this past summer, I saw in a copy of a photograph by Argentinian Alissandra Sanguinetti of two females in a dark room, shot with only the light coming in through a single window. Knockout photo. When I got back to Panama, I had the idea that I should do a painting of something in such a dark setting with a bunch of killer lights and shadows and, upon thumbing through my aforementioned collection of photos, found that, with a little imagination, I could take that Ecuadorian miss out of the hot Panamanian sun and put her into a cool, dark room, with pale light seeping in from behind her through a small window. For the room (table, hanging lightbulb and partial window), I referred to some extent to several magazine photos I had torn out and saved at some point of abandoned buildings at Ellis Island in New York. And the result is in the attachment. Your comments and criticism are welcome. I should warn you, though, that Esther absolutely loves this painting, has forbidden me even to contemplate putting same up for sale, and would look with some disfavor at comments that are unduly harsh. Joking. Have at it! Aloha, John
One of the Rules for Navigating in the Panama Canal provides that, "When passing through Gaillard Cut, or when approaching a lock, a vessel shall have an officer stationed on the bow...." Or words to that effect. Anyway, it didn't take me long as the Canal's vessel-accident attorney back in the 1970's to learn that an "officer" on merchant vessels is not typically a young, bright-eyed maritime-academy graduate in starched khakis, but is, instead, usually some grizzled old salt who has been going to sea for two decades or more, and for whom the Canal is just another (poor) reason for him to have to be on deck in inclement weather when he would much rather be sleeping. This is the fellow I have tried to paint here, and I have put him on the fo'c'sle head of a rusty coastal freighter [a vessel which exists only in my mind] early on a rainy morning. The canvas is small--only 9x12 inches--so a lot is necessarily left to the viewer's imagination. I saw a lot of character emanating from that glowering visage, however, and that was reason enough for me to do the painting. Comments invited. That's it for now. I just completed a contract with the Canal, providing them with 18 different, very detailed miniature paintings of Canal scenes (locks, ships, tugs, surrounding hills and mountains, etc.) done on sand dollars (!) which they had framed behind glass and presented to the members of their international advisory board. They came out very well in my view, (and were wonderfully well received, I am told, by the recipients), but for some reason--the slightly convex shape of the sand dollars, perhaps, or the glossy varnish I applied after doing each painting--they do not photograph acceptably. So, I cannot send you any shots of them. Now that I am back to full size oil paintings, I will try to keep photos coming to you as I finish them.
Dick Moseley - Photography
"Pink-yellow Plumaria Blossoms"
Black Sands Desert, Alamosa, CO on my way home from Viet Nam in 1968
"Yellowstone Wolves"
"Eagle Eye"
Montana mountain range in winter
"Enjoying the View" © Richard Moseley
Camera: Nikon D-100 Late Afternoon, Montana, Jan 2005. about -4 degrees!
"Close Formation"
I took this photo while flying tankers in Southeast Asia. We were over the Gulf of Tonkin refueling a flight of F-105 ThunderChiefs before they went into North Viet Nam to carry out their mission.
To view more of Dick's photography,
1) Go to www.digitalimagecafe.com web site
2) Space down to Member Galleries on the left and click on Richard Moseley.
Susan Hata O'Connor
Commercial art. Official logo for the Iliahi Foundation of Hawaii
More art is coming soon from Susan.....
Karl Polifka - Painting and creative writing
"Big Sur"
Vietnam series...
"Decision Time"
The picture is of me next to an RF-4 on my second SEA tour -- 1972 at Udorn, Thailand.
" Yea though I fly through the Red River Valley I will fear no evil for a clean RF-4 is a fast son of a bitch. "
"The Romantic"
From art to creative writing, Karl
writes about one memory as a FAC Forward Air Controller at an undisclosed base somewhere in Laos during the Vietnam War."August of 1969, a cool evening in the mountains, the fog rolling down the valleys almost to the runway. The lights of lanterns cluster near the thatch hootches. The fireplace in our old teak house glows and spits, driving away the damp coolness seeping through the closed shutters. Mike and I are sitting in wicker chairs out on the screened porch. My pipe flares in the darkness as we sip away at very generous portions of Johnny Walker Black. Down on the ramp an aircraft engine whines to life, and dies quietly as some mechanic makes a final adjustment. The end of another long day. Mike looks down at the end of the runway where the fog is turning the darkness a milky nothingness. "Only a true romantic would do this," he said. "D'accord."
Karl stands on the wing of an old warhorse and remembers times long ago and far away.
"It is good to be back"
Dawn greets us at our first daybreak on Kauai. (40th pre-reunion, 1999)
"Here, at dawn, the surf slaps surging white foam down on hard grayed sand beaches. Sea birds scree in alarm over the green-gray ocean that punches land ward in short brutal bursts of violence. The wind is an impatient thing, looking always for a fatal advantage. Passing clouds reflect sharp edges of white and gray-violet off a troubled sea that, in winter, slashes with remorseless, icy fingers. Impressive, but not beguiling. There, a pastel white surf line eases across the reef and hisses gently up coarse ochre coral sand spotted with bits of shell to kiss gently those who wait. The sky reflects a thousand soft hues off long glassy swells of a pacific sea that hides its occasional treachery behind a passive mask. Frigate birds fly long, undisturbed patrols on a soft and caring wind that lifts them gently just above a rich gentleness. There, a seductress is at work. Once again we came together to share, however briefly, the stories of our unique journeys that have each been shaped by the common bond of Punahou. Whether there for thirteen years, or one, we each reflect the joyful radiance of a magnificent school whose legend we helped build, and whose influence has powered the flights of our lives.
It is good to be back." Karl Polifka - June 1999
Jon Larson - wood sculpture
The Kohola whale sculpture is carved from a 1,000 year old Alaskan cedar log Jon and others including Pacific Islander eco-sculpturist Shane Eagleton salvaged along with nine other old growth logs from the U.S. Naval ammunition base at Port Chicago near San Francisco in 1997. The logs were floating caissons that survived the 1944 explosion of the ammunition facility and two ships that resulted in 350 deaths while onloading ammunition for the Pacific theatre. It was the largest domestic fatality tragedy of WW II.
This Kohola Sculpture honors the healing wisdom of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands and Ocean. Currently on display out-of-doors at the Interfaith Chapel in the San Francisco Presidio, Jon is looking for a way to bring the Kohola whale sculpture to Hawaii as its permanent home. Jon and others from the Pacific Islander Cultural Association have worked under the direct supervision of Pacific Islander eco-sculpturist Shane Eagleton in the carving of the ten massive Port Chicago logs into sculptures for specific healing purposes. Go to Kohola Sculptures for more information on all of the sculptures in the series.
Above is what is believed to be historical evidence of the Kohola logs from official U.S. Navy photos of the Port Chicago 1944 blast. Note in the bottom photo on the right hand side what we believe is one of the ten salvaged logs that survived the blast, wrapped in the heavy chains which tied the floating caissons together. Note the same chains in the photo below salvaged along with the logs. The logs were going to be cut up and sold for firewood before Jon and his team bought them from a U.S. Navy salvager and diverted them to become these massive Kohola sculptures. Each sculpture is between 500-1,000+ years old, weighs between 2-3 tons, and is approximately 30 feet long.
53 years after the Port Chicago disaster, Jon bought these logs salvaged from the former U.S. Navy Port Chicago Naval Base near San Francisco and trucked them to the Kohola carving site in the San Francisco Presidio on Earth Day in 1997 for carving into massive sculptures, each with a specific healing theme.
Chain saws and heavy duty grinders are the main tools used to shape the sculptures.
"One Voice 9-11" Sculpture
The One Voice 9-11 Healing sculpture was gifted to the City of New York and installed at the Bronx Zoo on September 5th, 2002. It is dedicated to the memory of all those lives lost in the 9-11 tragedy. The One Voice 9-11 Healing sculpture greets the children and adult visitors at the main entrance to the Bronx Zoo. For more background information on the project, go to One Voice 9-11 Sculpture
"Thousand Cranes" Sculpture
The "Thousand Cranes" sculpture currently r
esides at the Presidio Native Plant Nursery waiting plans to take it to Hawaii to be completed by teams of youth from California, Hawaii and Japan before it is transported permanently to Japan as a gift to the youth of the Pacific from the youth of Hawaii, perhaps even to be installed permanently within the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park in downtown Hiroshima.
Creative Writing....
"F U L L S U N , F U L L M O O N"
by Lonnie Wiig (Lwiig@AlohaMangosteen.com)
©2005 BayTree Solutions, LLC
" Last night, I went to sleep
beneath
a full moon and
am now waking up
feeling fantastic in every way
to a full sun
Rising as it does
Repeatedly.
At the count of three, you will rise, sun.
I want you to
Listen carefully to my words, sun.
I am going to count to three and you are
going to LIFT UP
above the line of trees
and homes
and hills.
At the count of three, sun,
You are going to rise up as though
you are attached to
a thousand helium-filled balloons.
You are going to rise up in the sky
above the clouds,
above the hills,
above the home filled with people
who watched the full, honey, shiny moon
rise 12 hours ago.
You are going to rise
like a helium-filled balloon.
It is almost time for me to count to three,
and sun, you are going to rise, and
bless us with another fantastic day, and
another fantastic summer filled with
blood red ripe tomatoes, and squash laying in
the garden near the watermelon and the zuchini,
and the blueberry bushes, already laden with plump,
ripening fruit, and the beanstalks
reaching, reaching, reaching
up, up, up into the sky, full sun.
I am now going to count to three.
ONE! You are rising,
you are starting to lift up.
TWO! You are attached to a thousand
helium-filled balloons,
10,000 helium-filled balloons,
a million helium-filled balloons.
You are a helium-filled balloon, Sun!
THREE!
Good job, full sun.
There you go,
UP! UP! UP!
Over the Caribbean lapping at the
shores of Florida and Texas
Over the lakes and gardens of
New York and New England
Over the cornfields of Illinois
and Saskatchewan
Higher and higher over the
hills and mountains of Colorado
And now over the
shore-tugging, mist-enshrouded
towns and cities of California.
Good job, Full Sun.
Just let go and Rise, Rise, Rise
like the great, helium filled balloon
that you are.
Shining down on all the earth
In your fantastic, splendid
day-ray-play-say-gay-hay-pay way, okay.
Yay! Now I can see you, Full Sun.
And in another 12 hours,
one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Yes, in another 12 hours
you will help your buddy, the full moon,
rise again. "
Please email your own submissions to: jon_larson@hotmail.com or mail a CD to: Jon Larson 4 Mateo Drive, Tiburon, CA 94920. Please include Internet link(s) to where we can find more information about your artwork. Mahalo....
