Hawaii 2024 - Part 5

Makapu'u lighthouse from Makapu'u beach

rabbit island from Makapu'u beach

very cool store/ceramics studio/community space called Fishcake in Kakaako and they have different popup kitchens. It happened to be Bing Mi who make great Jian Bing which i used to eat in Beijing all the time. Its hard to find good jian bing outside of china.

Jasper Wong seems like THE art guy to know in Hawaii. he founded and runs the PowWow/World Wide Walls mural festival every year and is friends with Justin Chon and became a studio space subletter when the landlord said he'd give him a really good deal on half the building but its up to him to sublease it out as studios to other artists. So he has figuratively and literally created a community of artists. He took us around to a bunch of the studios in the building and is the nicest and most generous guy.

Cravings, a letterpress studio. Everyone was so friendly and other studio people walked by and everyone knew each other and were so friendly

we walked up some stairs, I had no idea where we were going next and the door opens and a guy is like hi do you want to see some Chuck Jones original animation cells? I'm Chuck's grandson. We're talking Chuck Jones here the guy who created Wile e coyote, marvin the martian, pepe le pew, and co-created bugs bunny etc... There was a show of Chuck's work opening the day after we left but we got to see it all before they hung it. This was Gangway Gallery and Melon showed us around

they had a bunch of artists do officially licensed pieces too.

an interactive piece, it says rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, duck season etc. There's a cartoon where they keep changing it so elmer fudd will shoot daffy duck instead of bugs bunny instead of daffy instead of bugs etc.

Went to China Walls which jen had never been too. They say only locals should swim there cuz it's dangerous. It looks like really calm waters but there will be swells that come and could smash you on the cliff rocks. It looked awesome and if steven were there we woulda done it cuz there several spots to get in and out and a spot futher down where there were more people looked ok. 

this is not my photo but this is basically it. A giant pool really calm waters but if one of the swells comes when you're trying to get out that's a problem

a Hawaiian lady bug? Yes! this is an Ash Grey Ladybeetle and it says its host plant is papaya. Says it eats psyllids and "occasionally" aphids.

One of Jen's dad's old co-workers from the army corp of engineers days invited us to the Elks club on the water way at the end of Waikiki. Great sunset view.

Afterwards we met up with James and Lisa who's a photographer and does seriously cool stuff like her recent Hawaiian feather artists documentary series. EP bar is a vinyl records bar and could be the coolest bar on the island IMO.

last few hrs in Hawaii

went to the Koko Head botanical garden where the further in you go the crazier the plants get

Bougainvillea close up

so many plants like the Sausage tree that are a movie/game designers dream. Straight out of Scavengers Reign

I was ridin' solo so after this i went to Makapu'u beach and then Sandy beach. We had some beers at the airport and sad SPAM musubis and didn't sleep much on the plane so played like 4 hrs of Civilization 6 as Queen Seondeok of Korea.

gifts from Jasper Wong and Gangway Gallery and Chuck Jones' grandson Craig Kausen gave jen the Pepe Le Pew pin.

In summation it seems like the art community in Hawaii is very small and very tight and very friendly. Again a lot of people say you have to bring your own work to Hawaii cuz there's not a lot and its very low paying. Surfing twice was cool so if we lived there i guess i'd try to surf at the easy lame spots for a few yrs and maybe eventually make it up to like that place btwn diamond head and waikiki. I met a bunch of people and feel like i'd just keep meeting more and more people and be shouting out new friends all the time. The neighbor giving away mangos, Jen's high school pals we had drinks with (one of which she hadn't seen in 20 yrs), the bon dance, Lisa the photographer not being ashamed to say she wants it all (success), the java sparrows, the monarch ferns with the spore bumps, being ok with waikiki, this all has be intrigued. I'm intrigued Hawaii...