Making Molokai Even More Beautiful

Artist Kala’e Tangonan gave a presentation about her latest works to guests at Molokai Public Library last month. Photo by Léo Azambuja

By Léo Azambuja

A Molokai artist shared her passion for using art to make her home island even more beautiful during the Global Citizenship Speaker series at Molokai Public Library last month.

About 30 people attended Kalaʻe Tangonan’s good-humored presentation Sept. 17 about her endeavors in the art world, underlining Molokai, Kuʻu One Hānau, or Molokai, My Beloved Birthplace, a recently finished series of murals at Molokai High School. The large artwork involved other artists, students and multiple community volunteers. 

“Going through this process, I told myself, ‘It would be nicer if we could kind of spread around our island and create more mana‘o (ideas),’” Tangonan said. “Art engages people. So, it makes you talk about things. It makes you look at things. It makes you feel things.”

She had been talking about painting a mural at the school for four years. But she said the school’s principal, Katina Soares, had told her the school did not have money to pay her; other artists had put a price tag of about $50,000 for the job.

“I said, ‘You know what? I don’t care if you pay me or not. You just pay for the paint, because if I could afford the paint, I would have painted it already,’” Tangonan said.

Soares was then able to secure funds for the paint through an educational grant, according to Tangonan.

“That’s how we got started,” Tangonan said, adding that to cut through all the red tape, she had to turn in a sketch of the art proposal. “Of course, none of that is on the walls right now. None of it. I’m serious. We didn’t even stick to the idea. So, I just thought that was funny, because art grows like that.”

The finished murals are much more than a colorful depiction of Molokai’s fauna and flora. It travels through cultural symbolisms, old Hawaiian stories, land divisions, religious beliefs and history. Hundreds of handprints partially hidden in the underpaint, represent all who were a part of the process holding up the murals.

Tangonan disclosed she is going to do a mural at Kualapuʻu School. She also got invited to paint a mural on Kauai, and she jokingly said her husband threatened to divorce her if she goes.

“I said, ʻGo ahead, because I already looked at the divorce papers. It’s really fat. Good luck with that. I see you when I come back,’” Tangonan said, causing everyone at the library to laugh.

She also shared stories about other murals she painted on Molokai and other places, such as Alaska and throughout the Hawaiian Islands. 

And then there was this time when Tangonan got arrested for painting a public wall at a Molokai park, a story that caused even more laughter among the event’s attendees. Over the years, she repainted the same wall at least seven times. Someone would vandalize her work or paint over it, and she would go back and repaint it.

“We had wars with that wall,” she said.

After Tangonan’s father passed away, she repainted the wall for Father’s Day.

“That’s when I got arrested,” Tangonan said, adding her auntie naively told the park ranger who had painted the wall. Not wanting to make her auntie “look like one liar,” Tangonan admitted to the ranger it was her, and got arrested for that.

“It’s a good life. It’s a good life being an artist. We do crazy stuffs,” she said, laughing.

The event ended with refreshments outside the library. Visit www.librarieshawaii.org/branch/molokai-public-library/ for upcoming events at the Molokai Public Library.