Next weekend, SMALL TOWN * BIG ART will welcome Canadian-born Emmanuel Jarus to develop a large-scale mural depicting a Wailuku figure portrait in collaboration with this community. The narrative Jarus depicts in his approach communicates "a story of individual spirit that is relevant to the metabolism of a particular neighborhood." Through hands-on workshops hosted by Sabado Studios, Jarus will channel the sentiment of participants into an affirmation highlighting their personal connections to the town. The approach will allow Wailuku residents’ own story to resonate as they participate within the mural creation. Jarus’ proposed process recognizes the strength of diversity and importance of inclusion and embraces ‘Ike aku, ‘ike mai. Kōkua aku, kōkua mai. Pēlā ka nohona ‘ohana. (Watch, observe. Help others and accept help. That is the family way)
 
Why as an artist are you drawn to Wailuku?
My manager (Ann-Marie Power), who lived on Maui and spends a lot of time there, has been looking for interesting mural opportunities on the island for a few years. Our focus shifted to Wailuku specifically after an inspiring meeting with Aloha Missions Lesley Cummings + Tamika Cables. Last November when Maui News put out the article that Wailuku had been awarded a grant by the NEA, she reached out to Maui County and had the chance to connect with Kelly McHugh to hear more about the ST*BA project. The proposal was then carefully put together. I am excited to visit Hawaii for the first time and feel honoured to have been awarded the opportunity to contribute an art piece in Wailuku as part of the ST*BA project.
 
In the past 3 years, where have you created art?
Kiev, Ukraine; Stockholm Sweden; Montreal, Quebec (CA); Detroit, Michigan (US); London, UK; Boulogne-sur-Mer, FR; Atlanta, GA (US); Saskatoon, SK (CA); Halifax, NS (CA); Penang, Malaysia; Wollongong, Australia; Dunedin, New Zealand; Ao Nang, Thailand; Toronto, ON (CA); Werchter, Belgium; Banff, AB (CA); Regina, SK (CA); Mexico City, DF (MX); Mumbia, India; Valparaiso, Chile; Port of Spain, Trinidad; Winnipeg + Brandon, MB (CA); Nacka, Sweden
 
In your experience, what distinguishing factors make one neighborhood stand out from the next?
I paint in a lot of different types of neighbourhoods. I almost prefer small towns + small residential communities the most because I get to connect with people on a deeper level.
 
How would you describe creative placemaking to someone who does not understand the term?
The best way I can describe creative placemaking, is by looking at a public park that’s been neglected over the years and no one really goes to any more. Taking that park space and making it more attractive and accessible. Placemaking could be improving the equipment or replacing the picnic tables. The creative part could be engaging the community in a process to paint the park facing walls, washrooms, or covered picnic areas with a local art org/school, or, asking the community’s help in planting a pollinator garden with native plants. Those nice new additions to the park that would attract more people to gather there, play and talk story.
 
How do you define success in your work?
This is a very difficult and always changing question, in some pieces I have certain goals, but for me painting is a deeper way of understanding life around me and solidifying my experiences in a visual form.  The success is often in what is learned instead of an objective view of the final result.  There are paintings that I love initially and dislike later on and paintings I dislike initially but find value later on in life.  I find, like life, the process is more important than the final result.
 
How much research did you do in selecting a Hawaiian proverb for your initial proposal? What was that process like?
The research on the proverb involved stories of Hawaiian elders leading youth and inspiring cultural preservation and practices, and, how Hawaiians care for their kupuna. I attribute my knowledge of art to various influences, but mostly to my grandmother. The foundation of my art practice is inspired by her, and the road I've been on since has drawn support from both my immediate and chosen family. I enjoy painting in public space so I can understand its context and express it through my work; a process that is deeply rooted in observing life. In selecting from the Hawaiian proverbs - ‘Ike aku, ‘ike mai. Kōkua aku, kōkua mai. Pēlā ka nohona ‘ohana - Watch, observe. Help others and accept help. That is the family way - seemed in almost perfect alignment.

Written by Axel Beers for Maui Time Weekly

Andy Behrle has a day-old hospital bracelet clipped around his wrist when I meet him for coffee. It’s evidence that the artist has collaborated on not just one, but two major acts of creation over the weekend. Undoubtedly still caught in the whirlwind of an eventful three days, Behrle is bright-eyed and effusive when he speaks.

I sit and notice him gazing toward his phone at a photo of his swaddled baby’s scrunched-up, newborn face. His second son, just over 24 hours old, and his wife are about to be released from the hospital at any time, Behrle says, touching down to the present moment from his rapturous admiration. His gaze is deep, and not unlike that which the public cast on his other, more ephemeral creation days prior when it emerged during Wailuku’s September First Friday on the side of the Iao Theater, just a few buildings over from where we sit.

This recent creation, a work of art called “lost and found,” is a digital reimagination of the stained glass windows that once adorned Saint Anthony’s Church in Wailuku, before the structure was lost to arson in 1977. In an installation that was billed as a “one-night only” event, Behrle’s work was projected onto the side of the Iao Theater for three hours for passersby to observe, transforming Kipuka Square (the area between the police substation and the theater) into a sort of open cathedral and contemplative space. Like moments of contemplation and like water, the projection ebbs and flows – literally – as steady examination reveals the panels of the resurrected stained glass to be moving, living, close-up images of water. Starting in black and white, the Gothic skeleton of the lost window fills with color before returning to the shades of grey and swelling with color once again. There are four different compositions, each with six videos of water “painting” the recreated stained glass.

Behrle took some-75 videos with three different cameras for the project, capturing moments of water in different forms, colors, shades and light, mauka to makai, up and down the Wailuku River. “These little moments, these little fractions of moments in nature, feel universal – the water runs like this, right?” Behrle says. “But every frame and every picture is unique. Always has been and always will be, even if you visit the same river, the same beach, day after day after day – there’s something new there.”

The way these videos come together to form “lost and found” is like our memory and personal stories, he explains. We’re filters of moments and information that come together to form who we are. “That’s how the artwork is born,” Behrle says... (READ MORE)

Please join the SMALL TOWN * BIG ART team (Kelly, Sissy and Erin!) this Friday at Wailuku Town's Kipuka Square at 7:30 PM to celebrate the unveiling of Andy Behrle's "lost & found." 

Many months in the making, Behrle has worked with dozens of community members to research, reimagine and refine a light installation that depicts a stained glass window from St. Anthony's Church before it was lost to a devastating fire in 1977. Through hours of footage collected at different points of and in the Wailuku River, panes of glass have been replaced with visions of water. The piece will be on view for one night only against the side of Iao Theater from 7:30 - 9 PM during the September 6 Wailuku First Friday. 

​MORE. 

Shucks. Tonight’s #wailukufirstfriday has been canceled for safety reasons (thanks Hurricane Erick!) Please stay tuned for our pop-up reveal of @andybehrle‘s new media work of public art, “lost & found” ! Be the first to know by joining our email list by joining HERE.  #raindelay #playersoffthefield #erickshmerick #itsok #weactuallyreallyneedthisrain #wailukuwai

Andy Behrle creates site-specific and site-responsive installations that reflect upon the cultural, geologic, and social histories of places where he has lived and visited. Since 2015, many of these projects have focused on the use of new media technologies and digital video projection to immerse viewers in worlds shaped by colors of light and textures of water. More recently, Behrle has used digital editing software to stitch together multiple video files to re-imagine stained glass windows of historic places and traditional fabric patterns. For all of these projects, he captures video footage of local water sources both naturally occurring and created by humanity to investigate global systems through regional water use issues.
 
Having recently relocated to Maui from Hawaiʻi Island, Behrle has been dreaming of new digital video installations inspired by the lost and remaining stained glass windows of the Islands’ spiritual centers.
 
Enter Wailuku’s St. Anthony’s Church, which has been rebuilt 4 times since 1848 - somewhat fitting for its patron saint, the founder of lost articles.
 
Two months into our search for a discernible image of a stained glass window from the Church before the last rebuild (1980), we released a call-out to the community asking for public submissions that might help the artist with his reimagining. Thanks to the modern magic of social media and Maui Time Weekly, dozens of photos followed, nearly none of which offered a clear outline of the glass shapes, stories or colors. Last week, we were finally able to connect with the St. Anthony’s ʻohana, who spent a great deal of time and effort bringing the Church’s history to light.
 
Stephen Kealoha and Father Roland are deeply kind individuals well rooted in history and believe that the best ways to live a spiritual life are to share their faith with others, work with the poor, and educate and nourish the mind, the body, and the soul. When asked how the Church is rooted in Wailuku history, Father Roland responds, “the sugar plantation and the church go hand in hand. This is why you see all sorts of churches in Wailuku.”
 
Stephen and Father Roland were both surprised by the artists’ interest and excited about the idea of collaborating with SMALL TOWN * BIG ART on this creative placemaking project. As described by Inside Philanthropy, “places are not only geographic locations. They are diverse communities whose unique existence depends on both history and culture. The people that live in these neighborhoods know this better than anyone. It is up to placemakers to hear what they have to say.”
 
A big mahalo to all of the community members that have contributed to this SMALL TOWN * BIG ART  installation, and mahalo to Andy Behrle for being so well equipped to hear what they have to say.
 
We’ll see you at the unveiling on Friday, August 2. 

The first High Mass celebrated at St. Anthony Church in Wailuku Town was on July 13, 1848 – then, a thatched structure, which was replaced by wood in 1854 and by stone in 1873. It is said that Father Damien made his commitment to go to Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement during the 1873 Church blessing, and thus began his remarkable journey to sainthood. 

42 years ago, an arsonist des