‘Seven Pillars’ finally ready to rise

KAPA’A – The dream was born over 10 years ago as Kaua’i artist Carol Kouchi

Yotsuda supervised and worked on the huge artpiece fronting the entrance of

Kapa’a High School on the Kealia Bay side of the campus.

“Seven Pillars of

Wisdom,” made possible by the Art in Public Places program, is a multimedia

sculpture that represents the cradle of natural grandeur that encircles the

school, its creator said.

Yotsuda said it also serves symbolically as a

tangible reminder of the school’s basic mission: to help each student in his

personal search for enlightenment.

The Kalalea mountain range, the ethereal

Makaleha mountain range and the Nonou mountain creates the silhouette at the

tops of the seven concrete pillars which forms the basework of the sculpture,

representing the natural environment within which the high school is

couched.

Brushed aluminum represents the abundant rainfall and life-giving

springs that nurture the island. Kaua’i’s colorful landscape is captured in the

rich palette of the Italian glass mosaics with the characteristic red dirt and

furrowed farming fields being represented by the red clay tiles.

Silicon

bronze represents the man-made environment.

The shoreline fronting the

school with its cool tradewinds, watersports and abundant sealife is captured

in the lively ceramic tiles surrounded by the vivid blue of the ocean.

Ten

years ago, before Hurricane Iniki struck, Yotsuda started her project.

“Then the hurricane hit, and everything blew everywhere,” Yotsuda

said.

There followed a search for new housing, the creation of a new

studio, and then, last month, “when we had the (tropical storm) scare,

everything was laid out all over the patio,” she said. “I looked at all the

pieces and worked so hard trying to move everything inside, I got

sick.”

The storm never hit, Yotsuda recovered, and with the help of

numerous volunteers, the piece began to take shape at its new home at the

school entrance.

Yotsuda, born in Wailuku, Maui, is no stranger to Kaua’i’s

art world, having taught home economics and art for almost 37 years in Hawaii

schools.

Eveylyn deBuhr, a community art supporter, described Yotsuda as a

teacher and organizer who has “shared her enthusiasm for the creative process

with adults and youngsters in schools, night classes, summer sessions and

special exhibitions.”

According to deBuhr, Yotsuda has guided and inspired

a generation of Kaua’i high school students and has fostered the growth of the

Garden Island Arts Council, Kaua’i Academy of Creative Arts and the Kaua’i

Crafts Studio.

“She’s been teaching for 36 years, so appropriately, these

columns will be located on school grounds, incorporating many of the materials

and processes she’s used over the years,” deBuhr explained. “They will stand

tall and be noticed, just as Carol does within our community of

artists.”

Staff photographer Dennis Fujimoto can be reached at

245-3681 (ext. 253).