When The World Is Yours Canvas

808 Urban participant Laetita works on a mural HILARY HACKER PHOTOS

Artists continually show that a canvas can be anything — a piece of paper, a city wall — and it’s that concept that Honolulu Design Center is running with for its Canvas of a Different Nature event May 1-2.

The multi-faceted event includes an exhibit featuring four artists: mixed media artist Julia Sorensen, muralists Jesse Velasquez and Beethoven Villarmino, and photographer Andrew McHowell, along with a benefit dinner May 1, and a series of art workshops May 2. Proceeds from the dinner, as well as art sales during the weekend, benefit 808 Urban, a local nonprofit that mentors youths through arts programming.

For Honolulu Design Center, Canvas of a Different Nature is a way to connect with the community — and to highlight local artists.

“We have so much talent here in the Islands, and that talent runs really deep,” Honolulu Design Center marketing and public relations consultant Joett Colgan says. “But I think that too many times, we don’t see these people, because they don’t have the money or the backing. It takes people like the galleries in town, or hopefully businesses like ours, to try to help these (artists), so that other people can enjoy what they do.”

Hosting this event also is something of a return to its roots for Honolulu Design Center. Colgan explains that when the center opened in the 1990s, one of its goals was to hold community events that could double as fundraisers for nonprofits. But it got busy with other projects, and such ventures were pushed to the back burner.

But, more recently, as Kaka‘ako has grown, Honolulu Design Center saw new opportunities.

In addition to connecting with the burgeoning arts community, Honolulu Design Center also is motivated by the prospect of lending a hand to nonprofits.

In selecting the beneficiary, Honolulu Design Center quickly settled on 808 Urban.

“What they do is art,” Colgan says, “they just happen to do it on a very large format … (808 Urban) also has a really solid training program for these young people.”

MEET THE BENEFICIARY

In 2006, John “Prime” Hina found that his kids had adopted an after-school activity: They were coming home and tagging his walls.

Rather than getting angry, Hina, a graffiti artist himself, thought it was an opportunity for them to learn. So he set up walls in his backyard and started inviting over other neighborhood kids to practice graffiti.

“I decided to shift from the illegal route into the legal route and really provide them a platform to take the art form a couple steps higher,” Hina recalls.

By 2007, his backyard was full of graffiti-adorned walls, so he launched a nonprofit organization, 808 Urban, to carry out that same mission of teaching young artists about street art on a larger scale. Today, 808 Urban offers a range of programs using the arts as a vehicle for mentoring youths. Its young artists have created more than 50 murals throughout the state.

Although graffiti often gets a bad rap, Hina feels it’s a valuable way for artists to preserve history and express themselves.

“Graffiti, or street art, or whatever you want to call it, is, in my eyes, the only free art form left,” Hina says. “The rest have been institutionalized. You don’t need a degree, only common sense. Practically anyone can do it. It has been the voice of an oppressed demographic and cannot be censored due to the nature of this platform.”

MEET THE ARTISTS

Mixed media artist Julia Sorensen says that most of her projects come from failed attempts.

“I am a big believer in that when one door closes, another door will open, and you will open that door to a bigger and better concept,” says Sorensen. “The same goes for my art.

“I like to push the materials to their climax, not really caring if they are ruined,” she explains. “Mostly because I don’t consider them ruined at that point, I consider them a new creation.”

Sorensen describes her art as abstract, and she works with a variety of materials. One concept she considers thoughtfully in her work is how people interact with one another — how “we can make each other feel happy, sad, special, insignificant, lost, found and so much more than any word can explain.”

Sorensen’s versatility as an artist perhaps stems from her lifelong interest in art, design and fashion. She graduated from University of San Diego last spring with a degree in visual arts, and in the fall, she plans to pursue an MFA at San Francisco Art Institute.

“My work is not meant to be beautiful in a traditional sense — instead, it is meant to evoke emotion and speak to the viewer,” Sorensen explains.

Jesse Velasquez and Beethoven Villarmino both have been working with 808 Urban for a few years and have created numerous wall murals.

Both were artistically inclined from a young age — and became interested in graffiti, and later, murals, when they desired to work on a larger scale.

“Through graffiti, I realized I could impact people through the visual arts and get people to see my perspectives,” Velasquez says.

Their work is varied — Villarmino leans toward the abstract, while Velasquez focuses more on stylized realistic images — but both were drawn to this form as a way to practice art with a more pointed purpose, to address social issues or current events.

Andrew McHowell has travelled the world — Italy, Peru, the Maldives and more. Along the way, he sought to document his journeys and started taking photos when he was just 14.

These days, when McHowell isn’t on the road, he can be found in his gallery, Aina Imagery in Hawaii Kai. Focusing on landscape photography, McHowell captures vivid, striking photos of nature — which can be found in his book New Landscapes, which is filled with shots from his travels, as well as from around the island.

McHowell explains that much of what he shoots are recognizable landmarks — like Diamond Head or Macchu Picchu — but he aims to capture them in a different way.

“It is about documenting places that are very scenic,” he explains, “but documenting them in a way that resonates with locals that see them everyday.”

For more information about Canvas of a Different Nature, see the sidebar and visit honoluludesigncenter.com.

EVENT BREAKDOWN

EXHIBITION

The exhibition, depicting work by Andrew McHowell, Julia Sorensen, Jesse Velasquez and Beethoven Villarmino, will be on display from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 1 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 2 at Honolulu Design Center’s Cupola Theatre on the second floor.

BENEFIT DINNER

Dine at Stage Restaurant for dinner May 1, and a portion of your meal will go toward 808 Urban.

First seating starts at 5:30 p.m., and live music also will be provided throughout the evening. Reservations are recommended. Call 237-5429 or visit stagerestauranthawaii.com/ reservations.

WORKSHOPS

All workshops take place May 2 at Honolulu Design Center.

“MUTED NARRATIVES” WORKSHOP 10:30 TO 11:30 A.M.

Julia Sorensen kicks off the workshop series with her session that, as she says, is about “creating works of art that fill the gallery space with a haunting presence that is simultaneously inviting and unsettling.” Sorensen will depict how materials can engage with one another. “The materials I use are meant to intermingle with each other,” she says. “They tell stories about each other.”

“STREET ART AND ITS ROLE IN MODERN HAWAII” PANEL DISCUSSION FROM NOON TO 1 P.M. 808 Urban founder John “Prime” Hina leads this discussion about the importance and value of street art.

“MORE THAN JUST GRAFFITI” WORKSHOP FROM 1:30 TO 2:30 P.M.

808 Urban artists Jesse Velasquez (left) and Beethoven Villarmino demonstrate how muralists can create art from one of their commonly used supplies: aerosol cans. The end result will allow used cans to be utilized as a canvas in themselves.”It’s an effort to get (the cans) recycled, so we try to make use of them,” Villarmino says.

“INTRO TO YOUR CAMERA” WORKSHOP FROM 3 TO 4 P.M.

Landscape photographer Andrew McHowell runs through basic camera settings and provides tips on how to shoot high-quality photos. He explains that the workshop will help people “learn more about technical things you can easily apply, whether you are shooting on an iPhone or DSLR.”