Looking inside the Hanapepe Aero Bus

The saga of the (Caleb) Aero Bus is one of hope, re-use and re-purposing.

Coated in the telltale camouflage base coat Aero is known for, the bus sits across The Salvation Army Hanapepe Corps as a protector to the home of the artist involved with the Kapa‘a murals project that just recently was extended for another six months.

“I got the bus at an auction,” Aero said. “It’s the COVID, and no one was there to bid on the items. That’s how I got it.”

Juggling the makeover of the bus, the Kapa‘a murals project and caring for his family, Aero said the bus represents hope for the day the Hanapepe Art Night returns.

“This is going to be a mobile art workshop,” Aero said. “I can just drive it into place. I’ve gutted the inside and started putting in hardwood floors. There is a big printer installed, and a silk-screening setup that can get a finished item from scratch in as little as 30 minutes. And, there’re more things coming. I heard that when the Aloha Theatre is complete, they are going to have a stage. I’m writing an opera that I hope will be performed there.”

In anticipation of that event, Aero cast a face mask of his own face, and uses it as a base for creating masks that are elaborately decorated using various items from beach cleanups, marine-debris findings and items from The Salvation Army thrift store that are in the discarded heap.

“Kids love sunglasses,” Aero said. “That is a spinoff from the masks where kids create decorated sunglasses using everyday items people consider trash. The kids can make it and take it, being proud of not only being able to wear them, but they created it.”

Between fishing the various masks, Aero — that’s the name he adopted following the development of his own line of aerosol paints, Blubber Color, and his legacy of aerosol art around the country and the world — emerges in an Oriental-themed robe that melds a mask effectively to the robed body.

“This is like a one-stop shop,” Aero said. “You can create, make, and have it all done in one place. This is kind of a museum for small art — an introduction to what I’ve done in Koloa and around Kaua‘i, an introduction to what has been done during my decade of traveling and learning and doing aerosol art.”

Returning to the world outside the Aero Bus, the young father rolled off to do errands at the grocery store.

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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.