Updated: 9-10-05..........................................................147h.
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September 3, 2005
Artmail 147's: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i
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Aloha all...
This is from an old photo of some of the first Artrangs that I made from "scratch" back in 1993:
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I found these two from that batch in a storage box:
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Back in 1989, I moved from the Northshore to the Westside of Kaua'i. The primary reason was a drought period had ended and on the Northshore there was so much rainfall and the conditions were such that coats of polyurethane which I painted on boomerangs remained tacky...they would not dry fast enough. I was putting three coats of polyurethane on each boomerang waiting until the coat before dried. I was familiar with the Westside mainly by my driving to Polihale. I went searching for a place on the Westside in February and rented space to work on boomerangs as well as a wall in Art & Soul Gallery in Hanapepe.
I wasn't doing art back then and certainly didn't consider myself an "artist" (though my children are. Lorilyn was painting Dreamscapes Artrangs back in 1986). One of my objectives was to become recognized as an "artist" by the local people on the Westside. (Artists have a wider spectrum of behaviors that are accepted/tolerated in a society. I was able to demonstrate the art of flying boomerangs which impressed locals and shortly, my name became "Boomerang Art." At the urging of TC, who was running Art & Soul at that time, I bought some childrens' water colors at the store then painted a coconut palm bending with the curve of the boomerang...there was ocean and sky in the background. He put it up on the wall. Some days later, he told me he sold it for $25 and encouraged me to paint some more. I figured that he sacrificed $25 to get me started painting on boomerangs to go with my name, Boomerang Art.
I had 44 retail outlets on four islands for my Aloha Rangs. I had already introduced "Rainbow Rangs," but my plans changed when the same kind of boomerangs that I was buying unfinished from the mainland showed up in one of my Waikiki outlets...with a cruddy paste-on "Rainbow Rang" decal. The store-owner said "Your guy was there about three hours ago...I bought 24 of them." He showed me one. I told him that he wasn't "my guy" and that he was a "claim-jumper." I had the Aloha Rang trademark in Hawaii, but I had not registered "Rainbow Rangs" yet. I later found out that my agreed upon territory for the sale of this design of boomerang was being jumped even on Kaua'i. Of course, they could produce boomerangs more cheaply than me.
I have a bunch of those boomerangs stored in yet another box.
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I found a boomerang factory in Australia that would export better-flying boomerangs which I would sand and finish.
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While I was waiting for the first load of boomerangs from Australia, I started various Artrang ideas with the now rejected boomerangs. One idea was to put whales on a boomerang. The
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That idea ended quickly with this unfinished one.
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An unfinished Artrang on one of the Australian-shaped boomerangs.
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The back of that Artrang.
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It's the 7th... I've added some photos from 147c again. The box I'm going through now has some of the Artrangs from the early 90's (until I started on palm frond faces) and the last one I was painting...still unfinished. More about that later.
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I was doing this kind of boomerang art, then.
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In July of 1991, I went to the Big Island for two weeks and camped in a cave at Hapuna Beach. The middle of that two weeks was the 11th...the morning of the total eclipse. A total eclipse is exciting. I flew 15 boomerangs and caught them durning the eclipse. I wasn't so hypnotized by that big eye in the sky...I was able to observe the horizon all around. In the direction of the eclipse there was construction going on, no ocean scene...that was behind me. I used "artistic license" and put my wave in the eclipse scene that I was to paint on those 15 Artrangs. Henk took this photo of some:
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Henk van Dongen here, and here (near the bottom of pages),from Holland, took those photos. From the box of Artrangs, here are some finished and unfinished Eclipse Rangs. The one below is farther from being finished. I didn't try to paint stars into the picture, those are scrapings down to the gesso. There were no waves at Hapuna Beach, but the yellowish sky near the horizon and that's the way it looked. There were a lot of people on the beach staring up at that "big eye in the sky." They seldom looked away. I flew the 15 boomerangs and I saw all around me as I watched the boomerangs in flight. I paid particular attention to the color of the horizon over the ocean, but the eclipse was happening behind me.
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I guess it is difficult for me to paint essentially the same thing fifteen times. I started variations on the remaining boomerangs:
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I made these...but I only had time to fly 15 instead of 20 boomerangs.
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The year before that eclipse, I was also painting at Polihale. Here's what happened that led me to painting the Polihale Wahine Artrangs: I had been in the ocean bodysurfing and rode my final ride into shore. When I would get back to my towel, I would fly my boomerang while drying off. There was a very nice looking lady in a black thong bikini taking videos of the surf and scenery with her camcorder. I asked her if she would like me to film her with her corder as she played a little beit in the waves. (Maybe she asked me...I didn't know how to work one at that time). I guess I did it right. Anyway, the wahine was from Chicago and had been in Honolulu the previous week. She had organized a convention or conference for her company which was a lot of work and now was relaxing for a week on Kauai and was checking out Polihale Beach. We talked about boomerangs and I asked if she would like to learn to fly one. She learned in less than a dozen trys. I didn't have a camera, but I remembered the view and, later, painted it. Her hair was shorter and bikini was black, but what the heck?
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It was part of a two boomerang set. The right boomerang had the view of Makaha Point continued on the beach. These boomerangs were shaped in Australia. I sanded them and put on three coats of polyurethane. The customs people said that I should stamp each boomerang "Made in Australia." I wanted to show that I increased the value of the imported boomerangs more than 50%; therefore, I should not have to stamp them that way. I included the Makaha Point part of this diptych as an example and asked that it be returned. After a while, I got the OK not to put "Made in Australia" on the boomerangs, but they were going to keep the Artrang "on file." That was OK with me...I know where it's supposed to be. Here's the only other one I made like it...
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"The Golden Boomerang"?
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That idea ended with this one at this stage.
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Kolo gave me this photo he took back in those days of Paul H and me at the Hanapepe Brothers' camp in the Valley.
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Another whale of an idea ended with this one.
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How about a leaping dolphin near the point in the two-above old Artrang.
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A closer look at the leaping dolphin. Looking at this boomerang inspired me to paint what you see below.
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This is in Kekaha Ha'aheo 9C. Now Kolo has his studio here.
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That leaping doplhin led to me completing and giving away the first of three Artrangs. I went to something else after getting this far:
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I could finish these if I make time.
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It's the 10th...The next Artrang was my practice boomerang...one of two that I took with me to Polihale to fly. What I had done was paint the boomerang that was a good flyer...that was the one I flew most often. At that time in 1990, I was also painting driftwood found near the Hanapepe River mouth as shown in 147g. Kolo and Lincoln were wood carving and I was painting "stories" seen on the driftwood. Which made me think of story boards in Oceania. (Here are a couple of links to story boards for sale....HERE and HERE). Here is the start of my painted-on-driftwood story board:
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You can look at this and create your own story.............. (Look on the other side, too).
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The other side.
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So, this is the story board part of my old practice boomerang:
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There are several stories surrounding this boomerang.
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One story happened a year or so after I had painted it. The boomerang had accumulated a lot of oil and grime because I did not periodically clean it. I was with about half a dozen friends talking story in one of the small pavilions at Salt Pond Park. A group of German tourists were camping in the park and several came to the pavilion. They may have seen me flying the boomerang in the park early in that morning before campers were awake, I don't know. Anyway, one of them asked me if I would sell him that boomerang. I said, "No...it is my flying boomerang and besides, it's not cleaned." He said that was how he wanted it...looking very used. He wanted me to name a price. I said, "I really don't want to sell it." He said, "$2000?" (He had the money). That certainly made me think about it, but I figured that the boomerang was worth more than that to me...I didn't want to part with it...I could afford to say, "Thank you, but no, I want to keep this one."
Years later, it got broken, I don't remember how. Cindy S in Ventura has the missing piece. She will get the Artrang later on.
It's time to start another Artmail, but check out this driftwood story board painting:
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The unfinished side.................................................................Monsters of the Deep.
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Yeeeoooooowwww!!!
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That it for this Artmail. I'll continue with this stuff in Artmail 147i.
Aloha, Art
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