ART REVIEW
HPU exhibit showcases Peggy Chun's wide range of abilities

By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser Art Reviewer

A series of paintings of lips make up part of "Leaf of Dreams," an exhibit of works by artist Peggy Chun at Hawai'i Pacific University. Also on display are watercolors, 3-D works, photography, mixed media and pastels. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Leaf of Dreams By Peggy Chun Something Lost, Something Found By Bernard Moriaz Through Sept. 27 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays Hawai'i Pacific University Art Gallery 45-045 Kamehameha Highway 544-0287

Chun, one of Hawai'i's best-known artists, was featured in a profile in The Advertiser July 8 that looked at how she was faring after receiving the news that she has Lou Gherig's disease. "I have so many ideas," she said then, "and I have to get them out."

For this show, Chun has pulled out all the stops and exhibits her range of talent with works in watercolor, 3-D, photography, mixed media and pastels. Her work reflects her philosophy on creativity: Work on varied projects in different media, be as creative as the muse allows and keep on your toes.

Two series of framed watercolor paintings are displayed on opposite walls. "I don't usually paint in a series," says Chun, "but these were a blast to do, and I learned so much. I painted them one after another. At first, I was a little intimidated, but as I continued painting, I loosened up and became more fearless. I am honing my skills."

This continuing theme can be found in the 22 paintings of "Boo and Mo'o" that illustrate the amusing story of a relationship between a cat named Boo and a gecko. Twelve paintings of lips (Chun's personal favorite) "Personality of the Kiss," fill the other wall. This series is a feast of luscious liquid multi-red lips with titles such as "Willing," "Virginal," "Reticent," "Innocent," "Seductive," "Histrionic," "Flirtatious," and so on. It isn't hard to imagine them as Valentine greetings.

On the lower portion of this wall the mixed-media, three-dimensional "Shape Up" boasts assorted brands of lined-up, used lipsticks. The table below offers copies of a flyer titled "What does your lipstick shape say about you?" This paper contains erudite lipstick research and offers a short lesson in your personality type based on the way you use your lipstick, from (are you ready?) "slant-close-to-original shape" to "sharp angles-both-sides."

"Leaf of Dreams" is another three-dimensional work. In it, an old baseball is nestled in a large dried leaf — evocative of a leather baseball glove. Not necessarily a baseball fan, this reviewer still found the image stirring in that it questioned my associations of familiar visual images and their meanings.

Chun's photographs on watercolor paper in "Camp Erdman Series" have an eerie, vintage quality, with warm glows from a campfire or the setting sun illuminating the figures and trees. "We camped out there for thirtysomething years," she says. "These photographs are special memories."

"To sum it up," writes Chun, "I have to follow my passions."

Also on exhibit at HPU is a collection of works by Bernard Moriaz, including "Bull Cards Study," inspired by postage stamps.

Made out of roofing iron, "Spring Dress," "Woody Aloha Shirt" and "Marilyn Shrine Shirt" may not be wearable, but they are durable. The latter two feature découpage (one with cut-out photos of Marilyn Monroe and the other photos of old "woodie" station wagons glazed onto the surface). Background patterns of color undulate over the corrugated shape of the roofing iron and give these campy "clothes" the illusion of blowing in the wind.

Moriaz has been known to scavenge for his "art supplies." "I began using recycled materials," he said, "when I drove through Waipahu one day and saw that they were tearing down roofs and things. I thought it was a great venue for making art, and it was a free art store."

The cars in "Junk Yard Gods" and "Gas Hogs" are lively-colored works painted in a naive style on cement board that was used for construction in his Pupukea house.

"Bull Cards Study" is part of a series originally inspired by postage stamps. It is an experimental mixed-media piece of eighteen postcard-sized bulls in contrasting color combinations and treatments. One bull sports sunglasses.

Junk sculpture showed up on the art scene 50 years ago when artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jean Tinguely began making assemblages out of industrial debris. Moriaz's free-standing junk sculptures "Singing Bird" and "Bow and Arrow" are constructions of iron parts, garden tools, rebar, wheel covers and fan parts. Moriaz has a collection of these sculptures in his garden.

He said his interest in recycled materials came from the fact that he has "always been a tinkerer and enjoyed working with my hands. I get enjoyment in finding textures and colors in metal. A lot of Polynesian and American Indian art was made with the materials they found. In a throwaway society like America, you use what is around you. It is not unlike an American Indian picking up a piece of wood and carving a totem. Waste becomes something. I use my intuitive mind to create. It's experimental."

Invited by the City and County of Honolulu, Moriaz will also be exhibiting his art work made of recycled materials at the "Made in Hawaii" show which is wrapping up today at the Blaisdell Center from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

"My work tends to have a dual purpose," Moriaz said. "Part of it is playful — whether painting or recycled art — but there is also another element — being careful about our environment and the things we throw away."

In his perpetual improvisational mode, Moriaz says that art "is like a diary of your life."