Statues, paintings, photographs and textiles — from floor to ceiling and on every surface in between, the home of Carol Ann Davis is testament to her life as artist. Her two-story home in Po‘ipu feels part museum, part art gallery
Statues, paintings, photographs and textiles — from floor to ceiling and on every surface in between, the home of Carol Ann Davis is testament to her life as artist. Her two-story home in Po‘ipu feels part museum, part art gallery and part zoo — with the gallery mascot being Maximilan, a 15 pound one-eyed cat. The gallery greeter, a dog named Miss Athena, doubles as tour guide and the youngster of the staff is a green eyed, jet-black Flash. He’s still mostly kitten and unemployed so far.
“He won’t sit still long enough to pat,” Davis said. “My husband named him after Flash Gordon.”
No museum or gallery is complete without a hard-of- hearing curator and that would be Atom, the gremlin-eared footstool teetering around on 16-year old legs.
Miss Athena begins the tour in the foyer where collage images hang of the Koloa sugar mill.
“This is my sugar mill series,” Davis said. “Three of the series are part of the Hawai‘i State Foundation permanent collection.”
In the hallway and leading to the second floor, hundreds of framed photographs cover the walls — ranging from family reunions to gun-slinging grandfathers. On the islands since the 1870s, Davis and her family have a long history in Hawai‘i. Aside from being born on O‘ahu, Davis has spent most her life here. Arts organizations on Kaua‘i are practically synonymous with her name, having founded Kaua‘i’s first Community Arts Council over 40 years ago and the original Kaua‘i Society of Artists in the ’70s.
“I started the first arts council in 1965,” she said. “The intent was to represent other arts organizations — we had representatives from all the art groups on the island.”
Then Davis moved to O‘ahu in 1972 to finish her degrees. When she returned in 1977 as the arts coordinator for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts the original arts council had disappeared. In 1978 the Garden Island Arts Council was created.
To list her awards, exhibitions and publications would consume much of this page. Suffice it to say, Davis has received both Lifetime Achievement in the Arts and Woman of the Year in the Arts.
Last month she was one of three artists who had their work selected for the Maui Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2009. Of 240 entries, the jurors selected 56 works of art from artists across the state.
Although it had been a long time since Davis had done a portrait, she couldn’t resist taking up the brush to paint Marciana Gaboy, an 89-year old kupuna from the Philippines who now lives in Koloa with her daughter.
“I hadn’t painted a portrait in 30 years,” she confessed. “When I met Marciana at a party, I fell in love with her face. It was the look on her face, the sparkle in her eyes.”
Marciana’s portrait was a welcome diversion from a series Davis had been working on.
“My latest series is of body parts. For the past five years I’ve been immersed in all things medical,” she said.
Davis’s husband, the late Walter Briant, died in November of complications related to cancer of the stem cells. The six-painting series is a natural outcome of Davis’s five years of studying medical journals and doing research on her husband’s condition. The body part series explores the inner landscape of the body in molten shapes and color.
“I try to make it fun and not morbid,” she said.
Most of Davis’s work begins on the computer.
“When I paint I get all kinds of images and scan them into the computer,” she said. “It’s a wonderful tool.”
Davis not only uses the computer to begin work, she can also explore options for a painting that has a problem with composition or color.
“Sometimes you paint things wrong,” she said. “So I photograph it and scan it into the computer where I can move elements around or layer them. I used to throw mistakes away if I couldn’t get it right. Now I can start over.”
Davis’s portrait, “Marciana,” along with 54 others are on display at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center until Feb. 22. A select portion of the exhibition will travel to The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu for an exhibit from May 29 to Sept. 8.
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com
