Los Angeles artist Aaron Kai has painted his characteristically flowing, freehand wave murals all over the world.
They’re etched on bricks, stone, drywall and wood and splashed on walls spanning New York, Miami, Las Vegas and San Francisco, to name a few.
On Wednesday, Kai, a 27-year-old Hilo native, was back on the Big Island, painting his first mural on home turf — with the help of about 20 keiki and teens from his alma mater, Kamehameha Schools Hawaii.
“It’s kind of full circle,” Kai said Wednesday, amid trays, rollers and buckets of paint scattered around the idyllic, Hilo Bayfront mural site. “It’s coming back to where it all started. So I’m stoked.”
The mural was a joint effort between Kai, Kamehameha Schools, Samsung and the Hilo Skateplaza Coalition, a group which has long pushed to build a $3.5 million skating complex in Hilo.
Kai said Samsung representatives approached him last week to fly to Hawaii Island for the mural project. They’d also reached out to Kamehameha Schools to solicit students interested in helping paint. Samsung representatives filmed the daylong, mural painting project to use for footage for a commercial to air in June.
The mural, a monochromatic wave using the color red to represent the Big Island, was painted on a donated storage container, located in a public parking lot on Kamehameha Avenue.
Dan Madsen, chairman of the Skateplaza Coalition, said the parking lot has been designated to eventually house a temporary skate park.
Hilo Councilman Dennis “Fresh” Onishi previously contributed $50,000 from his council contingency fund account to help cover material costs for the temporary park. Madsen said the coalition is now awaiting materials to be purchased, which will be housed in the painted storage container.
The group is next working to raise about $8,000 to start construction of the temporary park, he said, and is planning a fundraiser to do so.
Kai said he began doodling in his youth. He said one of his first mentors was longtime Tribune-Herald cartoonist Gary Hoff. Kai is a 2007 Kamehameha Schools graduate who eventually began dabbling in mural work.
He’s gradually developed a following for his art and it has since taken off — he said he painted 33 murals in 2016 alone. His designs are located in Paris and six countries in Asia, according to his website.
Kai said he was in Hilo several weeks ago speaking to Kamehameha students. He generally paints solo, and said he wanted his first youth project to be with local students.
“I always wanted to come back and give back to Hawaiian kids,” Kai said. “I went to the same schools these kids (go) to, I had a lot of the same teachers. So for me, I want to show them first it’s possible to make it out and do something that you really like doing.”
Among Kamehameha students helping Wednesday was Hiilani Perreira-Gaspar, 10, who said she enjoyed working with a Hawaiian artist, painting with other students and creating art with materials such as paint rollers.
“We all worked together and tried our hardest,” Hiilani said. “We made this with love, we’re not just doing it because we wanted to. We did it because we wanted to experience having painting with different objects and materials. When it’s done, I’ll feel proud.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
