Kaoli Awa inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe

In 1939 Georgia O'Keeffe spent three months in Hawaii on assignment to paint pineapples for Dole. While she never got around to the pineapples she was inspired by the beauty of the islands.

“If my painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me, I may say that these paintings are what I have to give at present for what three months in Hawai‘i gave to me.”
An American Place exhibition statement 1940

It is possible to have an O'Keeffe inspiration each time we drive from Lanikai to Honolulu on the Pali Highway. The mountains in O'Keefee's Papaya Tree - Iao Valley are very similar to the green cliffs of the Koolau range.






O'Keeffe continued her exploration of flowers in Hawaii. While in New Mexico she painted many versions of the White Trumpet Flower.

Her close focus on the reproductive parts could be called flower pornography.

Her work has inspired many artists. I have used the macro feature of my new camera to focus details of our Hawaiian landscape.



















Kathleen spotted a small light blue koali awa behind our house. I took a close up photograph and created a digital watercolor image.

Click on the kaoli awa for a larger view.

We worked together to adjust the image so that the light and reflected light pull your eye into the depth of the flower.

Kaoli awa is a native Hawaiian morning glory that has been used for medicinal purposes.

Vigeland's Coconut Flower

It was over a year ago that we last trimmed our coconut tree. Among the 15 foot long leaves and green coconuts that rained down from the top of the tree were a few unopened flower sheaths. I looked inside one of them and saw the tightly packed coconut inflorescence. The male and female flowers fit together like a puzzle.

It made me think of The Monolith sculpture by Gustav Vigeland that I saw in Olso, Norway 45 years ago. Starting in 1927 three stone carvers spent fourteen years to transform a 46 foot tall block of granite into Vigeland's concept.


By comparison it takes just 26 months for a coconut flower to mature and break out of the sheath.

We trimmed our coconut tree again this month and I decided to explore my visual recollection of Vigeland's work as seen in a coconut flower. I used my new Canon G10 camera to get a close up of the flowers. In this view the male flowers are already released from the sheath. It is possible to see how tightly they fit together.

Click the coconut flower for a larger view.

There are different opinions about the meaning of The Monolith. We will not be sure if it represents humankind rising towards salvation, the struggle for existence or the transcendence of everyday life. Art should not have only one meaning.

As a pre-teen I was moved by Vigeland's many sculptures of children at Frogner Park including the Angry Boy. Time changes our perception of art. The interconnected mass of humanity united together in a column could represent the cycle of life as seen in a coconut flower or a cluster of humans clinging to these Hawaiian islands like opihi.

Snowbird Orchids

Click on the orchids for a larger view.

A neighbor of ours leaves Lanikai for the winter. In sort of a reverse snowbird fashion she migrates to the snow capped mountains. These orchids are a beautiful side effect of this yearly migration.

A few days before her flight, she delivered a zinc planter full of blooming orchid plants. We will care for them this winter. Since orchids are easy to grow in Hawaii, it might be possible for some to become jaded with so many beautiful orchids. I continue to be inspired.

Kathleen is reading Life Studies by Susan Veerland. It is a collection of stories about the impact of art on the life of ordinary people.

The Yellow Jacket, is about a Dutch painter working in Arles in 1888. A neighbor who has come to sit for a portrait wonders why would the artist have six paintings of sunflowers. The closed sunflowers remind Vincent van Gogh of small birds' nests back home and he wants to decorate his house. His friend was coming soon.

It is hard to say how many times the orchids will inspire. I expect to work on many more digital watercolors of our snowbird orchids.