FROM MAUI, HAWAII

Visiting Nature's and Man's Art Galleries (and Man's Nature)

Exciting Adventure Off the Beaten Track in Maui

MAUI, Hawaii, Jan 2, 2006 - Most great things happen when we least expect them.  That's been my experience, anyway.  Today was one of those days.  It started mundanely and mushroomed into an amazing, exciting feast for the eye and a treat for the soul.  I ended up visiting accidentally both nature's and man's art galleries, both well off the beaten track in Maui.  Fatalists say there are no accidents.  Maybe not.  But by the time the sun had set, I was exhausted from having to absorb so much audio-visual stimulation. 

Huh, tomorrow?  Try a couple of hours later.  And for the rest of the day.  In the end, however, this was by far the best time I've had on this visit to Hawaii (yes, even better than "The Whale of a Trip" that so many of you have told me you also loved).  If you join me, you will see scenes you will never find in any Hawaiian travel brochures.

And it all started with broken sunglasses.  I dropped them on a stone pool deck yesterday and a lense fell out.  I spied a Lencrafters store last night at a Wailuku mall (near Kahului - see the map) but it was closed.

Prior to last night, I had not even known that there were such things as malls on Maui.  Yet here it is... with all the usual retail suspects - Macy's, Sears, Sharper Image and a whole lot of shoe stores.  Plus Starbucks, of course.  Anyway, the repair took less than half an hour.  After that, I could not wait to get out of the mall.  But when I got out of the parking lot, instead of turning right to go home, I turned left toward the "female" volcano Puu Kuhiu (see my New Year's essay, "Between Two Volcanoes" for more context).  I don't know why.  On a spur of the moment, I decided to explore the parts of Maui I had never been to before (the blue line on the map).

Iao Valley 

The foreboding looking Iao Valley, toward which I was heading, was certainly one place I have never been to.

The closer I got to it, the darker it got.  And more beautiful, too, in a very untypical way for Hawaii.

I knew I was heading into some serious rain.  The funny thing was, by the time I had reached this point, and the first rain drops started to hit the windshield, I had only been driving less than five minutes from the mall where it was 85F and sunny.

And then the skies opened up...

...and the windshield wipers had a hard time keeping up with the rain.  "Warm and wet," that's what I said in my yin-yang piece about this extinct volcano.  I remembered that Captain Bill said the other day the annual rainfall here was 300 inches.  And it sure looked it, didn't it?  

"But wait," you might be thinking, "where is the volcano?"

Here.  This is one of the entrances to Puu Kukui through Iao Needle, as this peak is called.  

Suddenly, in less than 15 minutes, I found myself transported from a dry coastal climate to a regular rain forest.  A very pretty rain forest, I might add.  

Another surprise awaited me just a little ways down the road - a Korean temple in the middle of the rain forest!  It also looked pretty.

Back in Wailuku, enroute to Waihee, I came across this cute old theater, probably dating back to the early 1900s.

The signs above separate entrances for the "Royal Class" and the "Steerage" patrons attested to that.  Yet the theater is evidently still being used.  The poster in front of it is advertising a concert.

Waihee Heights

This is the view of the Kahului Bay from high ground above Waihee.

Oh, and I'd forgotten to tell you... a few days ago, I turned in my red Jeep for a "regular" sedan.  Not just because it was drafty at night.  Mostly because I could not lock anything in it.  And tonight, I learned just how smart that was.  Another guest at the condo had his Jeep Wrangler, the same as mine, robbed!  The thieves took everything, even the plastic roof and the windows.  Then he got a second Jeep that he wrecked, hitting an old truck that was parked on the side of the road.  "We are now on our fourth car in five days," he lamented.  "Guess they must be waiting for you with another car every night at the Dollar Car Rental agency," I joked.

Meanwhile, back to my road trip... the higher I got up the northern coast of Maui, the prettier the views became.  This is the view from about Hakuhee Point toward the east (Kahului).  By this stage, the road had narrowed to a single lane.  I had passed numerous road signs warning the drivers about it, as well as many No Shoulder" and "One Lane Bridge" cautions.  

I had also passed many road signs like this... It was only this evening, upon examining the map of where I had been "just exploring," that I saw the warnings on the map that rental cars should not be driven there.  Oh well, here I am, all in one piece along with my rental car - safe and sound.  Sometimes it's better not to know such things in advance.

One of the surprising things I discovered on this treacherous road was a number of prosperous-looking horse ranches with white fences and lovely estate-like homes.  In a way, I was a little disappointed that I was really not a pioneer discovering virgin bush.

Art Gallery

And then came a stunner.  In the middle of nowhere, at the bottom of a hairpin bend, an art gallery showed up...

"Turnbull Studios," read an imposing sign, as you can see.   I couldn't pass up a chance to pay it a visit.  And boy, am I ever glad I did...

The entrance was not much, but the view was fabulous...

...as was this wooden sculpture of two dancers.  From that moment on, I realized this was "serious" art, not just some kitsch for tourists.

When I walked in, I realized that sculptures, mostly out of wood, dominated the exhibit.  A scruffy looking guy wearing a baseball cap was concluding a deal with an older gentleman  for what looked like a "Kachina doll."  The gray-haired man's wife had just told him she wanted the sculpture and then walked out.  Guess so she would not witness the credit card carnage.  "Typical," I thought.

"Are you the artist?" I interrupted the transaction momentarily.

"One of them," the guy in a baseball cap replied.

"How many of you are there here?"

"Three of us."

I went on my way, walking from room to room and checking out the diplays.

This marvelous sculpture of a woman's head caught my attention.

I wanted a close up of it.  Later on, when he was finished selling that ugly "Kachina doll" (I'm sorry, but I hate them... have seen too many of them in Arizona, I suppose), I asked the man in the baseball cap what sort of a stone it had been carved out of.  

"It's a bronze," he stunned me with his reply.  "My wife did it."

"A bronze?"

He then explained the process of painting the bronze with layers of materials that make it look like marble or some similar kind of stone.  

"Amazing," I said.  "Your wife is very talented.  Too bad I don't really have a place for a sculpture in my home.  But I'll think about it and maybe will get back to you."

We discussed and agreed on price shipping arrangements in case I did decide to buy it.

I walked on.  I spied an interesting looking painting on the wall (above)...

...that reminded me of a 1930 Maxfield Parrish painting titled "Arizona" (above).  I have always loved the way Parrish handled the mountain light in that and his other Arizona paintings.  And here was now another artist, G.E. Guchi, who did the same in Hawaii.  I made a mental note to come back to that painting, having already positioned it in my mind above the mantelpiece of my living room fireplace.

Then I walked out to the back of the gallery where the real work was being done.  It looked messy, as real work often is before it is shaped into a beautiful piece of art.  An older gentleman walked out and started working on a wooden sculpture.

He looked Bohemian with a touch of Hemingway (it must have been the straw hat).  We started chatting.  I asked him if he would me taking a picture of him while he worked.  "Not if you put it on a Visa," he joked.  

"I am afraid that's impossible," I replied also in jest. "I only carry Mastercard."

He then explained to me the process of carving a pretty sculpture out of a clump of wood.  This particular piece of wood, for example, was a maple burrow, he said.  Now he is trying to shape it into something beautiful.  He does not know what, as yet.  "Sometimes, inspiration and ideas come to you as you go along," he explained.

"Sounds like my writing," I muttered under my breath.  "Sometimes I start out in one direction, and end up some place else."

Then I walked back into the gallery and stared at that Guchi painting for a long time.  

This (above) is what I saw in my mind... "I gotta have it," I concluded.  "It is perfect for my living room; just the right colors that will complement my tapestries and the drapes (with a new and different frame).

"How much is it?" I asked Steve, the man in the baseball hat.  We had just introduced ourselves to each other.  He was Steve Turnbull.  He and his wife Christine and "Uncle Bruce" (also Turnbull) were the gallery owners as well as artists living and working there.  The artist who painted "my painting," Guchi, is a Japanese Hawaiian from Oahu.  The mountain scene depicted on it is titles "Higher Grounds, Koolau's."

"This is a beautiful painting," Steve agreed.  "Guchi is an amazing artist.  His paintings don't stay on the wall.  My wife discovered him when they were both exhibiting in Oahu.  He loathes commercial galleries so it took a bit of coaxing for him to agree to let us sell his work.  He only did it because he saw that we are artists and a 'mom and pa' operation."

Steve then reached for something back of the painting.  A little piece of paper was attached to it.  Besides the details about the painting, it had the price written on it.

"I can't believe how low his prices are," Steve said more to himself than to me.  "If this were in an art gallery in Lahaina, they'd be asking $3,000 to $4,000 for it.  And it's an original!"

I could not agree with him more.  The other night, when I was gallery-hopping in Lahaina, a Wilson Curtis Cost reproduction of a jacaranda tree scene from Maui upcountry (Haleakala) was going for $17,000.  But I did not argue.  I just said I did not want the frame and paid the asking price, as reasonable as it was.

Steve then held now really my painting for me in the natural light so I could take this picture.  

I was so excited... I had spent weeks and weeks looking for just the right piece for that mantelpiece spot, and there it was... waiting for me on the island of Maui, done by a Japanese-Hawaiian from Oahu.  Russian, Greek, Italian, and now Japanese-Hawaiian, my art collection is starting to look very international.

And then I was on my way to Kapalua... off to new great adventures at the northwestern tip of Maui...

End of Part 1 - CLICK HERE to go to Part 2

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