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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, September 14, 2009

Youths help make a mural, memories


By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Artist Carl F.K. Pao and Katherine Terada, 16, of Punahou School, work on a painting depicting a historic Waikiki coconut grove that will be installed at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel. Students from various Oahu schools and local artists collaborated on the project.

Photos by ANDREW SHIMABUKU | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Malia Kanaiaupuni Naff, background, and Mahie Wilhelm, both from Kamakau Public Charter School, work on the Arting in Place painting for the Sheraton Waikiki.

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For 36 hours, a group of 21 students lived and breathed paint, charcoal and drawing.

They were part of a group of student artists who worked with local professional artists, painting a mural at the Sheraton Waikiki. Called Arting in Place, the project enabled the students to collaborate with professionals and draw and finish the mural that will eventually be hung above the escalator leading to the International Conference Center of the Pacific on the second floor of the hotel.

"It will be wonderful for the students," said Alice Chen, logistics coordinator for Mea Makamae, a cultural practitioner store at the Royal Hawaiian hotel that sponsors the program. "The great thing about this program is there's been a lot of Hawaiian immersion and culture. The students are connected to the idea that is a project bigger than themselves."

The purpose was to paint a mural that showed a sense of place for Waikiki and the Sheraton Waikiki. The mural is of Helumoa, a Hawaiian word that literally means chicken scratch and was the name given for the coconut grove planted in Waikiki.

The mural depicts a hand reaching down to curvy palm tree trunks, palm fronds and the round orbs of coconuts, Chen said.

The majority of the students came from four different schools — Kamakau Public Charter, Punahou, Roosevelt and Kamehameha — and are students of artist Meleanna Meyer, who has painted a dozen murals around the Islands.

"Everyone's been painting," Chen said. "It's been total art immersion of painting the six panels that are each 8 feet wide. It will be wonderful for the students."

The goal of the project was to give a real-world experience of creating a work of art, Meyer said.

"There's so much talent," Meyer said. "We're creating a memory. We're building community. We're hopefully nurturing their creative voice. My vision is that they continue in the arts."

Mahealani Garcia, a 10th-grade Roosevelt High School student, said the experience was one she'll never forget.

It was stressful. It was fun. And it was scary.

"I thought it was really, really cool," Garcia said. "I like to draw, but if there's other people around me, it makes me worried about messing up. It's a good memory, though. I'll always be proud of what we did this weekend."