Mango Man, in artist's eyes
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
Everybody calls him Mango Man. He's a tall, shambling, unkempt homeless guy who has wandered the Windward side of O'ahu for at least 15 years. Everyone recognizes him, but few reach out to him. He rarely talks. He's a little frightening but never any trouble, police say.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
A lot of neighborhood people want to know his background, where he came from, what went wrong along the way, why he's called Mango Man. But he's entitled to his privacy.
Natalie Ford painted Mango Man as Jesus with a lei.
Instead, this a story about one person who was touched by Mango Man. Someone who saw something in him that most people don't.
Something good.
"I'd watched him many times," said Natalie Ford. "And one day I just walked up to him and said, 'Hello.' I told him, 'God is with you.' "
Mango Man just smiled. Nothing else. But ever since, it's like there's a bond, something between them.
Something unspoken.
Something good.
"I just tuned in to his spirit," Ford said. "Whenever I go by, I just feel the love."
Not knowing what else to do, Ford did what she does best. She painted Mango Man.
Ford raised two children in California before she found her muse. Facing an empty-nest syndrome as she became a senior citizen, she packed up and went off alone to study art in England.
Since then she's been around. Africa. France. Portugal. Greece. Now Hawai'i, where she feels blessed to live in a 14th-floor apartment overlooking Kailua Bay, just around the corner from where Mango Man often rests.
Ford didn't paint him as most people see him. Not dreadlocked and dirty. Not the intimidating figure that sends children, and sometimes adults, crossing the street. Not a troubled soul.
She painted him as Jesus.
In purple for power. In green for nature. And with a lei of 30 flowers, one for each year of Jesus' teaching. He's holding an apple, a symbol of love and fertility.
"I don't know what other people think, but that's the way I see him," Ford said. "I know there's so much goodness inside him. I know he's trying to say something to the world. Everyone is important in the world. I know he is too."
Mike Leidemann's columns appear Thursdays and Saturdays. He can be reached by phone at 525-5460 or e-mail mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
