Charlene Hughes

Charlene Hughes began quilting in the1980's, when only one person on the entire island Maui taught the subject.This teacher's efforts were directed only to tourists interested in learning
Hawaiian quilting. Two sorely outdated books on the topic were available in the Maui public libraries. In addition to learning the topic, in 1996 Hughes remedied the lack of resources by founding the Maui Quilt Guild. Forty members attended the first meeting. Today the membership numbers 160.

Hughes has actively taught for the Maui Quilt Guild, the Hawaii Quilt Guild, the Hawaii Quilt Research Group and Quilt Hawaii. And in the tradition of many quilters who used their medium as message, Hughes has donated quilts to survivors of Hurricane Katrina, domestic and animal abuse shelters, hospitalized veterans of wars, residents of retirement home, the AIDS Foundation and breast cancer research.

During her life as a quilter, Hughes has been honored by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts purchase of three art quilts; other of her quilts have been purchased for collections on the mainland and in Hawaii. She has been an invited artist in a broad array of local and national shows, as well as a juried contributor to the state's most prestigious Artists of Hawaii exhibition at the Honolulu Academy of Art. The latest events have included interviews and photos for the "Alliance of American Quilts" and being invited to show two pieces at the "Quilts for Obama Inaugural Exhibit" in Washington D.C. Other of Hughes' quilts have been featured in books, magazines and college catalogs.

Suzanne Marinelli

Arleen Woo

Jennifer Cook

Hans Loffel

Phil Uhl

Candace Fenander

Kathy Bowers

By day, Kathy Bowers is a middle school vice principal, but when she leaves the Honolulu campus and makes her way across the H-3 to her home on the Windward side, her eye for art is on high alert. She began doodling as a child, but really made use of the art form when she went to graduate school. She would doodle as she listened to lectures and class discussions. Often classmates would tell her she should sell her doodles. She decided to give it a try during the fall of 2006 by taking part in a small craft fair. She was delighted that her designs were so well received, and her small business was born.

Kathy uses a number of mediums, but her favorite is gel pens on sketch paper. The designs are born as the pen touches the paper and they tell Kathy when they are ready for her to sign. Sometimes she has a particular form in mind—say an apple or a palm tree—but more often, the design just grows.

Granddaughter Isabella is responsible for the name for Kathy's artwork business: Nana's Noodles. She was three years old when she first noticed Nana working on her art. She asked what she was doing, and Nana replied, "Doodling." The next time Isabella saw Nana working, she asked, "Is that one of your noodles?"

katylouse48@hotmail.com

Jeremy Colvin

Jeremy Colvin was born in England and settled in Hawai'i in 2001. He works in oils and watercolours.

Noriko

Elegant and sophisticated with vibrant colour and a bold palette accurately describe Noriko's highly regarded and avidly collected floral paintings.
Born in Tokyo, the artist attended the Women's Physical Education University, receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree. Noriko's enthusiasm for challenge and competition led her to excel in a variety of contact sports and is an accomplished gymnast, motorcycle rider and Skydiver. Undaunted by the obvious hazards of the sport of Skydiving,Noriko became an expert and earned the distinction of being the first women Olympic skydiver in Japan.

Noriko also attended the San Francisco Academy of Art, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors, in graphic design. She then found a graphic arts and greeting card company producing over 500 designs that were distributed world-wide. Though managing a successful business Noriko felt stifled, constrained and unchallenged. Her background of challenging activities, expository writing, a solid grounding in design, a love of art and her latent talentsynergized , leading to her self taught evolution as an accomplished oil painter. A move to Hawaii further nourished her creative spirit and artistic expertise. With subtle tones and splash of colour her inspired artistry crates, vibrant floral canvasses.

The artist's native language is Japanese but she speaks fluent colour. Her paintings reflect this dynamic language with the theme "Rhythms of Colour".Noriko explains, "Visual images of colour communicate with people internationally. They respond and connect to the rhythm and power of colour. I try to bring the peace and beauty of flowers into ones life.

Jennifer Rothschild

Jennifer Rothschild studied art through special scholarships at the Choinard Art Institute in Los Angeles as well as the Art Center of Design at Pasadena. Her art work covers a wide range of medias that represent both contemporary and traditional designs. She has found the colors and textures of natural forms and themes a primary focus for her carved art pieces, painting and wall sculptures. Jennifer uses colors and texture of her subject and themes to develop her mixed media sculptures. She has been carving for the last six years and enjoys the art of wood burning for much of her detail on wood and
various types of media.

Ms. Rothschild has her work in private collections locally and all over the world. Her work is being represented by local galleries on Oahu and in California. Formerly she was the Association of Hawaii Artists president from 1999 to 2002 and is currently the workshop chair for this 80 year old organization.

In recent years Jennifer Rothschild’s work has won both national and local recognition. She was the National Easter Seals Design winner in two stamp designs in watercolor. The watercolor painting, Fern Grotto”, was selected for the Hawaiian Airlines cover design. In addition, she has had numerous commissions designing book and program covers, card or po ster designs, and mural designs for restaurants. She recently has become a member of the National Pen Women Organization which is composed of invited artists, poets, writers and musicians.

She welcomes art and design commissions of any scale. More of Ms. Rothschild's work can be viewed by logging on to her web site www.JRothschildArt.com.

Sue Roach

Sue Roach holds a bachelors degree in Biology from California State University, Sacramento, and a masters degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. After a 22 year career in the US Air Force, she began taking watercolor classes in 2001. Her work is inspired by the beauty of Hawaii's flowers and spectacular scenery. Sue specializes in still life works of glass fishing floats. She is a member of the Hawaii Watercolor Society (HWS), the Windward Artists Guild (WAG), the Association of Hawaii Artists (AHA) and paints weekly on location with the Windward Wanderers. Her website is: http://kukana.homestead.com/index.html

Gregory Pai

Gregory basically finds his greatest inspiration in the simple beauty of the natural landscape. His greatest influences include: Jean-Baptiste Corot, Thomas Cole, Frederich Church and other painters of the Hudson River Valley School, as well as George Inness, Thomas Moran, and Albert Bierstadt. He was also influenced by and studied with contemporary landscape artists Lorenzo Chavez, Richard McKinley, Albert Handell, Greg Biolchini and Maggie Price, as well as portrait artist Daniel Greene.

He has also studied with locally with Chuck Davis, George Woollard, Helen Iaea, and Mark Norseth. More of his works can be seen at http://www.gregorypai.com.

Suzanne Marinelli (and a picture of the granddaughters!)

Who's Suzanne Marinelli, anyway?

I made my first weaving the day I stopped smoking cigarettes (May 13, 1978; I still remember the day). I needed something – anything – to do with my hands that didn't involve holding a cigarette or choking someone. I walked through the jungle down to the ocean, collecting vines, roots and driftwood to keep my hands busy, and almost accidentally made my first weaving.

Growing up proud in a tiny coal mining camp in the southern Appalachian mountains, I learned how little we really need, and how much can be garnered from the often unnoticed resources around us. I would have been astonished if anyone had told me I was poor; that simply wasn't how we thought. Our lives were rich in ways that mattered.

That upbringing has informed my whole life, whether I was living in the Caribbean, in Virginia, or in Hawaii. When Hurricane 'Iniki destroyed my home in 1992, I remember thinking, "We fall down. We either get up and go again, or we stay down." So I grieved, got up, rearranged the pieces of my life, and kept going. Kept creating. Kept seeking treasure "amid the garbage and the flowers" (quoting Leonard Cohen).

We have one earth, one life, one chance. Most of my work is created from recycled, recyclable, or cast-off materials – scrap-yard wire has been my favorite resource these last few years. I see art as a way to reclaim, restore, re-create. Our tangled, troubled human lives and situations, handled lovingly, can be shaped into things of grace, strength, and beauty. What is lost may be found. What is broken may be mended. What is destroyed may be given new life and seen in new and different ways. Thank goodness.

I may never get wealthy doing art work, but that doesn't matter. In ways that really matter, I've been wealthy all along.

Suzanne Marinelli
Cell: 808 778 8257
Website: http://www.mostlywoven.com.

geoff kam

Fearsomely jaded and cynical, and prone to drama, blatant misrepresentation and referring to himself in the third person, Geoff paints non-figurative pieces en plein air. Non-figurative because creating the painting's vocabulary on the fly forces him into his right brain and en plein air because fresh air and sunshine are good for even jaded and cynical souls. Like a Neil Young guitar solo, Geoff's paintings strive for formal rigor and a raw expressiveness beyond (some would say, "without") technique. His day job is not worth mentioning. He is human to his two turtles, "Chumbawumba" and "Chum," and has a friend who thinks the turtles should have been named "Cuff" and "Link."

Anna Farawell

Suzanne McCrary

Suzanne Fumie McCrary, born and raised in Hawaii, has had a lifelong interest in drawing, painting, and photography. In her former career as an elementary school teacher, she worked with gifted and talented students to develop their literary and artistic talents. During a year-long sabbatical from teaching, she pursued her study of art at the University of Hawaii. Eager to explore a variety of art forms, Suzanne studied watercolor painting with island artist George Woollard, and Chinese brush painting with Dr. I-Hsiung Ju, former Chair of the Art Department at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. She honed her skills with oils and palette knife studying with Hawaii impressionist master, Ed Furuike.

Suzanne specializes in oil paintings of land and seascapes, particularly those of her native Hawaii, where she seeks to capture the serenity and beauty of scenes around the islands.

...I see beauty all around me every day—the warmth of sunlight through the leaves of a tree, the elusive clouds atop the Koolaus, the amazing greens in the waves at Waimanalo. I hope my paintings convey the sense of wonder and beauty I feel as I create them and help the viewer to experience a new way of seeing and feeling the familiar. (Suzanne McCrary, Palette Knife Artist)

808.486.2973
mccrarym001@hawaii.rr.com

Clyde Oishi

Ruth Laird Pistor

Phi Derby

A retired educator and member of a Honolulu family involved in the arts for over three generations, Phi Derby has journeyed from school and college cartooning to other line art offerings and onward. In recent years, Phi has had his works juried into AHA shows and has shown at Punahou alumni art venues.