Fifty Shades of Blue Artist Helen Nahoopii
By Ma‘ata Tukuafu
KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2019
When Helen Nahoopii
30
Model Shea Ervin wearing a hand painted pareo.
was a young girl, she was known as the “creative one” in the family. Her mother, a chemist and tax consultant, recognized that Helen saw the world in a unique way; she didn’t think linearly and didn’t take to numbers. Her mother encouraged Helen to be creative and become an artist. In the early 1960s, Helen’s family lived in Hau‘ula on the north shore of O‘ahu. There, with her large Hawaiian family, she learned how to live simply, primarily because money was scarce. In 1967, the family moved to Pohoiki, here on Hawai‘i Island, and her parents rented a beach house (one of only three in the area) located in the ancient fishing village of Ahalanui. “My earliest memory was to scavenge for driftwood, shells, beach