Art Night strong despite setbacks by Pam Woolway – The Garden Island There was no Hanapepe art night when Anna and Rick Raimondi rolled into town 15 years ago. “Hanapepe was a ghost town,” said Rick Raimondi. The two artists
Art Night strong despite setbacks
by Pam Woolway – The Garden Island
There was no Hanapepe art night when Anna and Rick Raimondi rolled into town 15 years ago.
“Hanapepe was a ghost town,” said Rick Raimondi.
The two artists had moved with their daughter from central California six months after Hurricane ‘Iniki.
“Anyone who could swing a hammer could find work,” said the veteran construction worker. But a series of mishaps convinced Rick Raimondi to reconsider his line of work.
“My body told me, ‘stop hurting yourself — you’re an artist.’”
Anna Raimondi, a classically trained painter, already defined herself as a working artist. Her husband, however, required a little more reminding. When the two decided to commit to their art as a primary source of income, Rick Raimondi went through vocational rehabilitation.
“I wrote the proposal for an art center to open in Hanapepe Town,” he said. A decision that in a few short years would be the catalyst for what is now an island mainstay — Hanapepe Art Walk every Friday night.
“It was 1996,” said Rick Raimondi. “Mark Jeffers had Storybook Theater and we put up a stage down by the river.” Every Friday the town would promote free live music to draw interest to Hanapepe.
“We ran electricity from our apartment with extension cords,” said Rick Raimondi. “This went on for about two years.”
“The gallery owners would pitch in to pay musicians,” said Anna Raimondi. Then all the stores would stay open for foot traffic.
“We just thought it was a nice alternative for tourists and locals,” she added. “It was an evolving thing.”
Eventually the stage came down and the musicians began playing in front of the galleries or at cafes.
When the Raimondis first opened their small art center in the recess of one of the alleys in town, they displayed one of Anna Raimondi’s life-size angels near the corner to attract attention. In fact, the 3 foot by 6 foot angels became somewhat of a logo for this artist trained predominantly in portraits and landscapes.
“One Christmas I painted angels on grass mats for the United Church of Christ in Hanapepe,” she said.
When she’d completed the four angels from the Christmas story she painted the Nativity scene on a stand up board for the front lawn of the church.
Anna Raimondi’s angels travel far and near. You may have spotted one mounted on a wall outside of a local business or even on the Mainland.
“I had a visitor walk in and buy three,’” she said. “He’d never even bought an original piece of art before.” The angel he spotted had been tucked in a corner. “For public appeal I keep my landscapes out front so the angel wasn’t even in view.”
She admits that her talents are not of a business kind.
“I’m trying to get into marketing,” she said. “Meanwhile, I rely on angels and miracles.”
The first five years of the Hanapepe Town Art Walk were seamless. But like most commerce on the island 9-11 took its toll on all of the shop owners in town.
“It killed our business,” said Rick Raimondi.
It wasn’t long before friends and neighboring galleries closed their doors. Even the Raimondis had to downsize from their two-room gallery back into the small space they once occupied in the early 1990s.
Once again though, Rick Raimondi’s entrepreneurial skills with writing business proposals saved them. Now you can visit their small gift shop and gallery in the front section of The Storybook Theatre.
Among originals by Anna Raimondi you can find giclées of her historical Hanapepe Town canvases, along with her husband’s menehune sculptures and of course, a small flock of angels.
“I love growing old in a place where I can walk down the street to work and feel like I’m in a parade waving at all the faces I know.”
• To learn more about Raimondi’s work, call 335-3442 or visit her Web site at annameansgrace.com.
