Abundant Art

Native Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos carries the standard of the Hawaiian warrior. His battlefields are the canvas and the forest. His mission: to fire a passion for art and for the preservation of the ‘äina, the land. In the process of his quest he has become one of Hawai‘i’s most prolific painters. His images bring legends to life in galleries and public places, and on the pages of the best-selling book, The Epic Tale of Hi‘iakaikapoliopele, recounting the life of the goddess Pele and her sister, Hi‘iakaika.

His murals grace the walls of the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikïkï, telling the story of that same land in ancient time. With modern technology only a click away the murals were geo-located. The view is exactly what viewers would see if they could time-travel. His paintings reach out to the people of the Islands and the world. His goal is to preserve and present Hawaiian culture in its finest form through his classic art. He paints in the manner of the old masters, hoping that every painting is a story, a legend, that will inspire the viewer to learn more.

His art career began when he was somewhere near 10, drawing in the studio of his father, noted artist and Hawaiian activist Eric Enos. He grew up on Ka‘ala Farm, the West O‘ahu cultural learning center and successful economic development project founded by his father in the ‘70s. It was, and is, a place where drug abusers and at-risk youth turned their lives around as they worked the land. He describes it as his “think tank for what the future can be.”

His own style evolved as the epic legends of the gods and goddesses of ancient Hawai‘i inspired him. Meanwhile, he attended college and paid rent by stocking shoes, cashiering in a department store, and working as an aid in legislative offices. As a clerk for the Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection, he became even more aware of the issues facing modern Hawai‘i. All the while, his real world was the land, in real-time, and in his dreams 40,000 years back in time and 40,000 years into the future.

For months, his futuristic Polyfantastica, a sophisticated, hand-painted cartoon world, was a favorite in the Sunday newspaper. Soon to be a book, the storyline takes readers through eras based on Ku, the god of war; Lono, god of healing and agriculture; Kanaloa, god of the ocean; and Kane, god of fresh water.

His studio, tucked into the Ko‘olau mountain range above Honolulu, is called the Kalihi Valley Nature Park. It is a forest preserve, an artist’s studio, and a living gallery to celebrate the abundance of Island life. Solomon Enos is the valley caretaker and artist in residence. He lives in the park with his family, telling its story as he introduces the concept of malama ‘äina, loving the land, through his art and his daily life. He comments that the valley park has a 20-year lease and he has a hundred-year plan.

Enos notes that the valley is a living museum of archaeological information, layered with agricultural terraces dating to pre-contact, before the westerners sailed the oceans of the world. He calls it a Hawaiian calabash, a bowl of riches. “This is a place to be still,” he says as his gaze wanders far into the tangle of rainforest, “a place where we can re-learn what we may have forgotten.” He talks of time long ago when the ahupua‘a, the land division from mountain peak to ocean, offered abundant wealth and provided for all needs. He enlists anyone who will listen, telling them of the need to heal the land, to clear away the invasive species and replant the endemic and indigenous trees, plentiful in Hawaii before modernization.

Solomon speaks of the land as “our mother, our grandmother, all our ancestors.” He says their bones are the dust, the soil, the nutrients that feed the dry land forests and the lo‘i taro terraces. He explains, “This valley is now wearing someone else’s clothing. To care-take this ‘äina, this land, all non-indigenous garments of green must be removed, no matter how lush they may appear. They are someone else’s natural wonders, not ours. They choke our native trees, even though, at the same time they are a rebirth of the trees, grown from the ancestors.” Accidentally planted bamboo, he says, can be lyrical. It can also keep the native koa and ulu, breadfruit trees, from thriving.

Walking across acres newly planted with tiny koa trees, Enos says his hopes are now to pass on the passion for art to his own daughter, and to other children of the land. “They need to see the valley, and other Hawaiian places, as a hundred-acre canvas. We can create equally with a chainsaw and a shovel, a pencil and a paint brush.” His dreams are of a time when art is obsolete, because everyone is an artist, each creating his or her own artistic life.

The artist becomes a philosopher as he talks of how art and work nourish the soul. “As we change we grow. As we malama, love and care for the land, we will find a balance and receive abundance. It is our kuleana, our job, to raise the collective awareness until we return to the land, as bones and dust, to be born again into another’s abundance.”

www.solomonenosgallery.com