Wailea Magazine, Issue 16; Spring-Summer, 2019

SPRING •

SUMMER 2019 / ISSUE 16

wailea MAGAZINE

©ISAAC ARJONILLA

WELCOME TO

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CO N TEN TS

SPRING - SUMMER / 2019 / ISSUE 16

50 F E AT U R E S

26 The Illuminati

42 An Artist’s Journey

58 Rhapsody in Red

A FAMILY FINDS INSPIRATION IN LIGHT

THE MULTI-LAYERED WORLD OF MARY MITSUDA

BY ILIMA LOOMIS PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL OLSSON

BY GRADY TIMMONS PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANA EDMUNDS

BEHOLD THE PETAL, ITS PORTAL AND ITS POWER

34 The Many Layers of Hula 50 One Voice Becomes KUMU KAMAKA KUKONA ON THE ROOTS OF CULTURE AND DANCE

BY KYLE ELLISON

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a Chorus

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL OLSSON

66 A Trip to the Stars

IN THE MERWIN CONSERVANCY GREEN ROOM

MAUI FILM FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY

BY RICK CHATENEVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM SEWELL

BY RICK CHATENEVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL OLSSON

Genuine Hawaiian Koa Wood Watch Collection from $395

An incomparable collection of Hawaiian and Island lifestyle jewelry WAILEA The Shops at Wailea, Upper Level • Grand Wailea Resort KAANAPALI: Whalers Village • Hyatt Regency Maui LAHAINA: 858 Front Street, across from Bubba Gump • 744 Front Street, across from the seawall • Lahaina Cannery KAHULUI: Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center

NaHoku.com • 1-800-260-3912 Best of HONOLULU MAGAZINE 2018

HAWAII’S BEST

People’s Choice Awards The Star-Advertiser 2018

HAWAII MAGAZINE Readers’ Choice Award 2019

CO N TEN TS

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73 D E PA R T M E N T S

THE GUIDE

6 Welcome Letter

16 Faces of Wailea

74 Explore

FROM BUD PIKRONE

ALOHA IN ACTION

8 Contributors

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL OLSSON

THE GENTLE, CALMING LIFE OF THE SOUTH SHORE

10 Lei of the Land

68 Fun in the Sun

GETTING AROUND WAILEA

IN LIVING COLOR

WHERE TO GO FOR FARE TO REMEMBER

14 Behind the Scenes

96 Aloha Moment

82 Shop

THE UNSUNG HEROES

BY SARAH RUPPENTHAL 4

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76 Dine

THE ART OF SHOPPING

ON THE COVER Mike Worcester’s “Sunset Shell” is pure alchemy. At his family’s Worcester Glassworks on Maui, he transforms molten glass into pieces that look organic, giving them life, form, color and grace.

Cover Image: ©Rachel Olsson

Our Celestial collection comes in several styles and sizes and is available in 14K Yellow, White or Rose Gold.

An incomparable collection of Hawaiian and Island lifestyle jewelry WAILEA The Shops at Wailea, Upper Level • Grand Wailea Resort KAANAPALI: Whalers Village • Hyatt Regency Maui LAHAINA: 858 Front Street, across from Bubba Gump • 744 Front Street, across from the seawall • Lahaina Cannery KAHULUI: Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center

NaHoku.com • 1-800-260-3912 Best of HONOLULU MAGAZINE 2018

HAWAII’S BEST

People’s Choice Awards The Star-Advertiser 2018

HAWAII MAGAZINE Readers’ Choice Award 2019

wailea

ALOHA

MAGAZINE

Here we are

, spring and summer. The seasons blend seamlessly through the year, and we count our blessings. We know that Maui, ultimately, has no seasons, and we relish the rhythms of the year, the many familiar patterns and events. We anticipate the wonders of the months to come. We imagine the calm waters and longer days ahead and relish the prospects of the new recreational choices they will bring.

As our resort residents and returning guests know, Wailea’s weather, activities, accommodations and amenities are enjoyable year-round and remembered for years to come. And while we bid aloha to our cherished koholā, the humpback whales that migrate here annually, we look forward to their return next fall.

A constant pleasure at any time of year is the scenic Coastal Path. Both a walkway and a gathering place, it’s a nexus for invigorating morning walks, oceanfront exercise and the spectacular daily sunset. As you enjoy your walk, you are never more than minutes away from a romantic dinner created by our world-renowned chefs celebrating their talents with the fabulous local harvests. The Maui Film Festival is featured every spring, and the biannual Restaurant Week is among the special gatherings throughout the year. You can always count on something special happening in Wailea.

This is a destination in which nature, the environment and modern amenities seamlessly coalesce. The sunrise over Haleakalā is always spectacular, especially over the first sip of Maui coffee on a welcoming lānai. We’re also proud of the aloha spirit our guests and residents experience daily, and of the Hawaiian culture and traditions we celebrate: the ‘ukulele, hula, surfing, ocean sports, crafts and the visual arts. We also honor our cultural wayfinders and the ocean channels that brought the early navigators to this shore.

We hope your time in Wailea is gratifying, and that your new memories form a lei of aloha that will always be with you.

Mahalo nui loa for sharing your time with us here in Wailea.

where ADVERTISING GROUP PUBLISHER

William A. Moore III

WAILEA PUBLISHER

Debbie De Mello

HAWAII SALES DIRECTOR

Leianne Pedro

Frank “Bud” Pikrone General Manager, Wailea Resort Association For more information about Wailea Resort, please visit www.wailearesortassociation.com.

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EDITORIAL EDITOR

Jocelyn Fujii

DESIGN DIRECTOR ART DIRECTOR

Jane Frey

Teri Samuels

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ACCOUNT MANAGERS

Wanda Garcia-Fetherston, Donna Kowalczyk, Nicholas Riopelle

WAILEA PHOTO EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Isaac Arjonilla

Rachel Olsson

Jasmine Hu

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Rick Chatenever,

Kyle Ellison, Ilima Loomis, Sarah Ruppenthal, Grady Timmons CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Mykle Coyne,

Dana Edmunds, Rachel Olsson WAILEA RESORT ASSOCIATION GENERAL MANAGER

Frank “Bud” Pikrone

WAILEA DESTINATION LIAISON

Kathleen Costello

MORRIS VISITOR PUBLICATIONS MVP | Executive PRESIDENT

MVP | Creative

Donna W. Kessler

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER

Haines Wilkerson

Dennis Kelly

CREATIVE COORDINATOR

Beverly Mandelblatt

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

Angela E. Allen MVP | Manufacturing & Production

MVP | Marketing & Sales Support

DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING

Donald Horton

MARKETING & CIRCULATION MANAGER

PUBLICATION SERVICES DIRECTOR

Karen Fralick

Sherry Mae Ravago

PUBLICATION SERVICES MANAGER

Cher Wheeler

ADVERTISING SERVICES COORDINATOR

Melanie Lee

PHOTO SCANNING/RETOUCH

Jerry Hartman

E-mails for all of the above : Firstname.lastname@morris.com

where | HAWAII OFFICES 1833 Kalakaua Ave., Suite 810, Honolulu, HI 96815 ph 808.955.2378 fax 808.955.2379

MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS CHAIRMAN

Kipa hou mai!

(Come visit again!)

| HAWAII

William S. Morris III

PRESIDENT AND CEO

William S. Morris IV

Copyright 2019 by Morris Visitor Publications. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, without the express prior written permission of the publisher. The publisher assumes no responsibility to any party for the content of any advertisement in this publication, including any errors and omissions therein. By placing an order for an advertisement, the advertiser agrees to indemnify the publisher against any claims relating to the advertisement. Printed in U.S.A. Wailea magazine is produced in cooperation with the Wailea Resort Association.

WAILEA GATEWAY CENTER WAILEA GATEWAY CENTER your gateway to great food and fun shops your gateway totop great food and fun shops At the of Wailea Resort At the top of Wailea Resort

Dining Activities Dining••Shopping Shopping ••Activities Health th & & Wellness Wellness ••Services Services Heal 10&&34 34 Wailea Wailea Gateway Gateway Place, Wailea, 10 Wailea, Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i, 96753 96753

CONTRIBUTORS

“People have been blowing air into molten glass for millennia.”

—FROM “THE ILLUMINATI,” p. 26

SARAH RUPPENTHAL Behind the Scenes, p. 14 She is an award-winning freelance journalist, columnist and contributing writer for a number of regional publications. A resident of Maui’s north shore, she is a columnist for this magazine and a regular contributor of feature articles. When she's not

ILIMA LOOMIS

He has traveled through 65 countries and has authored two editions of the Moon guidebook to Maui, Moloka‘i and Lana‘i. He lives in Kula with his wife and two sons and is a regular contributor to this magazine.

The Illuminati, p. 26 Maui resident Ilima Loomis last wrote about artist Abigail Romanchak for the October 2018 issue of this magazine. In this issue she captures the magic and many dimensions of glass created by Worcester Glassworks.

RICK CHATENEVER working on a story, she's relaxing at her home on Maui's north shore. This is her second column of Behind the Scenes, highlighting the hidden heroes of the resort.

KYLE ELLISON The Many Layers of Hula, p. 34 Maui-based writer Kyle Ellison has written about Maui for Travel + Leisure, Afar, Escape, Travel Channel and other national and regional publications.

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One Voice Becomes a Chorus, p. 50 A Trip to the Stars, p. 66 Rick Chatenever is a regular contributor to this magazine and considered the dean of writers on Maui's film and entertainment scene. He is a valued feature writer, an Emmy-nominated scriptwriter and author of a weekly newspaper column on Maui. He mentored many young writers in his years teaching English at UH-Maui College.

THOMAS SEWELL One Voice Becomes a Chorus, p. 50 Photographer Thomas Sewell is a longtime resident of Hā‘ikū, Maui, with his wife, Michelle, an interior designer. His work has appeared in The New York Times and other publications, and he has also created multimedia installations.

GRADY TIMMONS An Artist's Journey, p. 42 Grady Timmons, communications director for The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i, has written about Hawai‘i sports and other subjects for

numerous local, national and international publications. He is the author of the awardwinning book “Waikiki Beachboy,” as well as “A Century of Golf: O‘ahu Country Club,” published in 2007, and is himself an avid golfer.

DANA EDMUNDS An Artist's Journey, p. 42 A prominent Hawai‘i photographer, Dana shoots for editorial, advertising and sports clients in Hawai‘i and around the world. He’s a valued and regular contributor to this magazine.

GRAND WAILEA SHOPS PINK LILIA A LILLY PULITZER SIGNATURE STORE MAKANA – GIFTS WITH ALOHA MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BOUTIQUE CRUISE BOUTIQUE PINEAPPLE PATCH QUIKSILVER GRAND IMAGE BOUTIQUE BEACH & POOL STORE NA HOKU GRAND JEWELS OF WAILEA CHRISTOPHER EGAN GALLERIES KI‘I GALLERY PACIFIC DREAM PHOTOGRAPHY AKAMAI BUSINESS CENTER ENTERPRISE

3850 Wailea Alanui, Wailea, HI 96753 808.875.1234 • WWW.GRANDWAILEA.COM GRAND WAILEA, A WALDORF ASTORIA RESORT

NAVIGATE

Lei of the Land GETTING AROUND WAILEA

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1 Fairmont Kea Lani 2 Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea 3 Grand Wailea 4 Ho`olei at Grand Wailea 5 Wailea Beach Resort 6 Hotel Wailea 7 Wailea Beach Villas 8 Wailea Elua Village 9 Palms at Wailea 10 Wailea Ekolu Village 11 Wailea Grand Champions Villas

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Wailea Ekahi Village The Shops at Wailea Wailea Town Center Wailea Gateway Center Wailea Tennis Club Wailea Blue Clubhouse Wailea Village Center Wailea Gold & Emerald Clubhouse 20 Andaz Maui Wailea Resort 21 Wailea Residence Inn 22 Keala O Wailea

Resort Hotels Condominiums Shopping Tennis Golf Courses Beaches Snorkeling Coastal Path Beach Parking

(WATERCOLOR) ©MIKE REAGAN

WAILEA RESORT MAP KEY

(MAP) ©EUREKA CARTOGRAPHY, BERKELEY, CA;

WAILEA is nestled on the leeward side of South Maui. Only 30 minutes from the Kahului Airport, just south of the town of Kīhei, Wailea is easily accessible by automobile. The main entrances to Wailea’s luxurious beachfront resorts are located along Wailea Alanui.

All of Wailea’s resorts, along with golf, tennis, dining and shopping, are within a few minutes’ drive of your resort or condominium. The 1.5-mile Coastal Walk affords easy access to the beachfront resorts.

Throughout the year, the Wailea Coastal Path provides the ideal location for watching sunsets. The sun melts into the tranquil waters, where paddlers, swimmers and sailboats are a festive sight and dolphins may leap into view.

Island sizes and locations not to scale

6:45 am aboard the Sunrise Deluxe Snorkel Scan with the Layar App to discover more!

Book your adventure at www.kaikanani.com

Discover Hawaii’s most authentic luxury Lu‘au at Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, The Feast at Mokapu. Join us for a beautifully curated cultural and culinary experience set among our iconic grassy lawn and the sandy shore of Mokapu beach. While enjoying interactive story-telling, indulge in an `ohana style meal, and handcrafted cocktails personalized to your liking.

BEHIND THE SCENES

By SARAH RUPPENTHAL

From the Heart

The boundless aloha of KEONI CABANTING, beach and pool supervisor at the Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui smoothly at the resort’s three swimming pools and beach area—all while going above and beyond to deliver personalized service.

Case in point: Keoni knows the first and last names of hundreds of repeat guests, along with their kids’ names (and in some cases, dogs’ names), how they prefer their beach towels and lounge chairs positioned, and what kind of fruit they like to nibble at poolside.

It comes as no surprise, then, that Keoni was recognized as the resort’s 2018 “Heartist of the Year.” A “Heartist” (heart + artist) uses his or her heart to create unforgettable memories for guests—and if you ask any of his colleagues, they’ll tell you Keoni is a shoo-in for the honor. Here’s why: Q: What’s a typical day for you? A: Every day is different. I do everything from scheduling cabana reservations to setting up for special events to resetting chairs and umbrellas at the end of the day—I’m constantly moving.

But guest service is my main priority.

Q: So that’s the one constant, then. A: Yes. My goal is to make at least one guest say to themselves: “This is the greatest day ever.”

Q: From what I hear, you’re responsible for quite a few “greatest day evers.” A: (Laughs) I really hope so. That’s what I set out to do every day I come to work.

Q: What’s your secret? A: I believe building personal connections with guests is what keeps them coming back every year. If a

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guest remembers my name at the end of their stay, I know I’ve done my job right.

Q: Do guests ever check in—pardon the pun—with you when they’re not here at the resort? A: Oh, yes. I get a lot of emails, text messages, Christmas cards … They fill me in on what’s happening in their lives throughout the year. I love that.

Q: You’ve been at the Fairmont Kea Lani for nearly two decades. In that time, is there a single moment that stands out as a career highlight? A: There’s a family with a special needs child that comes every year. They rent the same cabana each time—and they call it “CJ’s Island.” I stayed late one evening and decorated the cabana with banana leaves and palm tree and ti leaf trimmings to make it look like a tropical island. I also borrowed a stanchion from the banquets department and printed a sign that said: “Welcome to CJ’s Island.” When the family showed up to the pool the next day, they were beyond words. Seeing the expressions of joy on their faces…it was one of the greatest moments of my life.

Q: It sounds like it’s something we should all do. A: Absolutely. I’ve learned that when you are open and receptive to others, you have a chance to make a difference in someone’s life. My core values are compassion, dedication, love, respect, and devotion. I not only bring these values to my work, but they are also the values that I live by on a day-to-day basis … and they represent me as a father, husband, friend, and supervisor.

©RACHEL OLSSON

“I believe that building personal connections with guests is what keeps them coming back every year.”

NINETEEN YEARS AGO, when a teenaged Keoni Cabanting landed a parttime job as a beach and pool attendant at the Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui, it quickly became evident that he had an uncanny instinct for making every guest feel welcome. Today he leads a team of attendants and keeps things running

There are many ways to extend and express aloha.

THE FACES

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OF WAILEA

Welcome.

Photography by RACHEL OLSSON

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A Smile, an outstretched hand, a lei, a moment to pause in greeting: Wailea.

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One blissful moment to renew your mana (energy).

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Reservations call 808.875.1234 ext. 51 WWW.GRANDWAILEA.COM

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Become an Elite Member • 877.497.2582 • 3850 Wailea Alanui, Wailea, HI 96753 • www.grandwailea.com •

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The Illuminati AT WORCESTER GLASSWORKS, A FAMILY FINDS INSPIRATION IN LIGHT Story by ILIMA LOOMIS

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Photography by RACHEL OLSSON

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Take a deep

breath and dive down

as deep as you can

go,

then turn around and look up. That play of sunlight on the surface of the ocean—as seen from below— is what Mike Worcester has caught in glass. “I’m trying to capture more of that watery feel, all ripples and facets of light refraction,” he says as he cradles the heavy, iridescent piece in the palm of his hand, turning it under the gallery lights to watch them glance and shimmer across its surface.

The son of Kula glass artists Bill and Sally Worcester, Mike is a second-generation glassblower. Hanging around his parents’ workshop as a kid, he dabbled with glass. But he didn’t get serious about the art form until his 20s, after a stint in culinary school convinced him that he didn’t want to become a chef.

When his parents were invited to teach at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, Mike had an opportunity to study glasswork formally. He fell in love with the medium and eventually opened his own studio in California, then moved back to Maui and joined his parents’ shop, Worcester Glassworks, in 2005.

While some artists might hyperventilate over learning how to use authentic Italian tools or mastering a thousand-year-old technique, Mike is less

(Previous spread) From the "Afterglow" series. (This page and opposite page) Two close-ups of the "Sunset Shells."

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“There’s so much

light and color in the universe ...”

—SALLY WORCESTER

got that from Dad.”

—MIKE WORCESTER

inspired by the process itself than he is by his subject matter. A water lover since birth (or earlier, to hear Sally tell it; she was on her way to take a dip in the ocean when she went into labor), he tries to capture the multitude of shapes, textures and colors of the sea in his pieces. “I’ve always been fascinated with the water or the sky,” he says. “It’s all about that color.”

The quest to capture the ocean in glass has led Mike to explore new techniques. He traces a thumb over the heavy piece resting on his palm. With its aquamarine surface etched in flat, matte interlocking geometric patterns, it almost looks more like an incandescent blue dragon’s egg than a vase. It’s just one effect Mike is able to achieve by carving, grinding and sandblasting his pieces after they’ve cooled.

“I’m really liking this cold work, and that’s what I’m getting into,” he says. The process can change the color of the glass, let more light in, and alter the surface to make it less “glassy” and give it more of a coarse finish, with a texture resembling ceramic or stone.

As an artist, he’d always envied painters for their ability to continue working and adding to a canvas long after the first draft of a piece has dried. Now, with his quiver of diamond drill bits and grinders, he can enjoy the same luxury of time and transformation.

Mike’s foray into carving shows just one of the ways this family of artists has influenced one another.

It was Sally who first began playing with the texture of her finished pieces, back in the 1980s. Inspired by color, Sally started experimenting with a technique of layering different colors from the inside out, then sand-blasting or carving the cooled piece to reveal and blend the different shades. The process of working with glass is a bit like watercolor, notes Bill. “All the colors you put on influence each other,” he says.

“With carving, you change the light, you change 30

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the piece,” adds Sally. Where her son’s work channels the energy of the ocean, Sally is more likely to draw her ideas from a shadowy forest, a rippling stand of bamboo, or the kitchen garden where she tends to basil, tomato plants and pyramids of pole beans.

Less literal than Mike’s representations of waves and waterfalls, Sally’s dreamlike pieces are often an interpretation of nature, dappled in shades of green, yellow, orange and pink. “I try to get the feeling I have when I’m walking in a forest,” she says.

Beyond plants, Sally has been inspired by Hawaiian culture—a line of her pieces evokes hula instruments like the ipu (gourd), along with the cosmos. A recent series inspired by the Hubble Space Telescope showcases colorful nebulas and spirals of light dancing against an inky background. “There’s so much light and color in the universe, it’s awe-inspiring,” Sally observes.

Although he’s currently taking a sabbatical from glassblowing, Bill’s work tends to be influenced by planetary science, with fiery volcanoes, seething lava and the ancient textures of the Earth’s crust.

Sally and Bill Worcester have been sculpting glass since 1969, when Bill, then a graduate student in oceanography at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, joined a Honolulu artisan’s studio and signed up for a class in glassblowing. But it was more than a class on glass—it was partly a historical journey to distant times and cultures.

People have been blowing air into molten glass to form cups, bottles and other vessels for millennia. The process is thought to have been invented by Syrians around the 1st century B.C. and practiced by artisans in places like Venice, Italy since the Middle Ages; but it was still a novelty in the United States in the 1960s.

With few practitioners, less than a year after enrolling in his first class, Bill found himself the recipient of a state grant to teach glassblowing.

Intrigued, Sally wanted to try it too. Then working as a schoolteacher, she found the intensity of glassblowing seductive—the heat, the physicality, the challenge of expressing her vision in a medium that so often seemed to have its own ideas about what it wanted to do.

When she joined her husband in starting a studio, Sally (This page, top to bottom) Honey-like glass is shaped and textured; the essential tools of the artist. (Opposite page) Bill and Mike Worcester in the myriad stages of glassblowing.

PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

“I do geek out over the finishing process—I think I

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became one of the first and only women working in an overwhelmingly male-dominated field.

The family moved to Oregon, where they made the prescient decision of establishing their gallery in the same room as their furnace, attracting an audience of curious onlookers who dropped in to watch them blow and peppered them with questions about their art—often sticking around to buy one of their pieces.

The Worcesters returned to Hawai‘i in 1985 and opened a studio, first in Makawao and eventually relocating the business to their Kula property in 2000. Working together as a family changed the dynamic in the studio, she says. “Emotionally, in the studio, we have to work it out. We know pretty much right away if somebody’s having a hard day.”

At the same time, it brought a new element to the art. “In some ways, it’s made us closer,” Sally says. “In other ways, we’re so close, it can be hard to be your own person.” More than once, Mike says he’s watched his mom working on a piece and felt inspired to try something based on the idea—but held back. “I’ll go in a different direction,” he says, “just to let her run with it.”

(Opposite page) A coral reef paperweight.

(This page, from the top) Sally, Bill and Mike Worcester in their studio. “Bathysphere.”

But, Sally concedes, “We definitely influence each other.” Mike has learned from his mother’s thoughtful and nuanced use of color; she’s studied color relationships with local painter and teacher Dick Nelson.

After seeing some of her son’s vibrantly hued sunsets in his recent “Afterglow” series, Sally has been inspired to get “wild” with bolder, brighter color choices.

Mike selects a graceful, pear-shaped vase from the gallery, swirling with translucent violet and pink over a base of deep, dark blue. Light dances across the surface as he slides it forward under a spotlight, until suddenly he hits the right angle and it glows with shades of orange, peach and blush. As the light reflects off the opaque base, the piece is illuminated from within, evoking the last glorious rays of the day as the sun slides into a darkening sea. “When you light it up, it gets that sunset glow,” he says with a smile.

Mike has been working on this sunset-inspired series for more than three years, learning by trial and error how to layer not just the colors of the glass, but the shades of blue reflected from the interior of the piece, and to capture the quality of light as the sun sets over the ocean. As much as his source material may come from nature, “I do geek out over the finishing process—I think I got that from Dad,” he says. “He taught me, if you’re going to do something, do it right. It might not be the way they’ve been doing it for 2,000 years, but it’s the right way for you.”

While Bill and Sally began their careers largely

self-taught and unencumbered by the traditional forms, rules and conventions of the art, Mike has had the best of both worlds. His parents encouraged him to innovate and play with the medium to find his own unique voice, but he also pursued and received formal training in classical techniques. “He’s a much better glassblower than we are,” Sally says, “and that’s as it should be.”

More change may be in store for this glassblowing family. After taking a hiatus to recover from wrist surgery, Sally plans to resume glassblowing in the spring of 2019. And Mike has begun dividing his time between Maui and California, opening a finishing workshop in Carmel, with a plan to spend his time on Maui blowing glass with his parents, then taking the blanks back to the mainland, where he can focus on carving. His work is currently available in one shop in Carmel Valley, and he plans to open a studio there in the future.

It’s the reverse of what his parents did in the 1980s, he points out, when they brought blanks from their Oregon studio to work on as they got settled in Hawai‘i. “Now I’m blowing glass here and taking it back there to keep busy,” he says.

“Oh my God,” Sally laughs. “It’s going full circle.”

While change always brings uncertainty, Sally is ready to see what comes. “With glass, timing is everything,” she says. “You’ve got to do things at the right time.”

“It’s like that with life too,” Mike adds. “If you’re forcing the issue, it’s not going to happen.”

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THE MANY LAYERS OF

Hula KUMU KAMAKA KUKONA ON THE ROOTS OF CULTURE AND DANCE

PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

Story by KYLE ELLISON

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(PREVIOUS SPREAD) ©DINO MORROW (3), (OPPOSITE PAGE) ©DINO MORROW, (THIS PAGE FROM TOP) ©MYKLE COYNE, ©DINO MORROW

PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

K

amaka Kukona had a bit of a problem when he first started out as a songwriter. He knew the songs he’d written were good, but nobody wanted to record them.

Rather than let the melodies die, he decided he’d simply record them himself—and boy, did that ever work. His students were not surprised.

By 2019, Kukona had twice been declared Male Vocalist of the Year at the Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards, often referred to as “Hawai‘i’s version of the Grammys.” In 2014, the same year he was nominated for a Grammy award (he didn’t win), he was declared Male Vocalist of the year for his debut album, “Hanu ‘A‘ala,” and four years later, in 2018, he won again.

His voice is only half the equation.

Beyond his hugely successful singing career, Kukona is best known as a kumu hula who ranks among the world’s most revered and respected hula instructors.

In 2004 he founded his hula hālau, Hālau o ka Hanu Lehua, and later competed on hula’s grandest stage, the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo. It was also in 2004 that he spoke at a conference in Japan, establishing a foothold in the burgeoning hula scene there. Having had a presence at both Merrie Monarch and in Japan, Kukona was introduced to the international arena and continued to build a huge following in Japan, where hula is immensely popular.

Kukona has 10—yes, 10—satellite offshoots of his Maui hālau in cities across Japan.

From Tokyo to Nagano and Osaka to Okinawa, Kukona perpetuates Hawaiian culture through language, dance, story and song in a nation where ‘auana, or the modern style of hula, has recently taken off.

Just how popular is hula in Japan? Enough that Kukona, in 2018, visited the country 16 times to meet the growing demand.

Hula, however, is less about numbers and more about forging rooted connections with the language, legend, culture and chant behind the world’s most recognized dance.

“Hula,” says Kukona, “is really like poetry, because it’s a dance that’s set to words. When you delve into that poetry, you open up stories, and when you translate those stories with your movement and dance, you perpetuate those stories’ memories, whether it’s the story of Kamehameha or of Lili‘uokalani.”

As a kumu hula (hula’s highest rank), Kukona has achieved the cultural equivalent of a doctorate, or PhD. It did not happen overnight.

He first began dancing at five years old in Hilo, where he was living. He further honed his skills in dance, song and chant on O‘ahu, where he was a

(This page, below) The kumu puts the finishing touches on the lei po‘o, the head lei.

(Opposite page) The kūpe‘e, wrist adornment, is equally important.

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boarding student at Kamehameha Schools beginning in 7th grade.

“At Kamehameha,” says Kukona, “you kind of fell into one of three groups: sports, academics or performing arts. It just so happened I fared well in the arts. The teachers there, when they know they’re investing in someone with potential, really go all the way. I owe a lot to my Kamehameha teachers, as the opportunities that were given to us as young kids made us ready to be adults.”

Following his Kamehameha graduation, Kukona put in exhaustive levels of work toward cultural fluency.

To achieve the title of kumu hula, students must study for years—sometimes decades—to complete the level of practice and research required in earning the coveted rank.

To give you an idea of what Kukona accomplished, his research was broken into four areas of study: ali‘i (ruling chiefs), wahi pana (sacred places), hula Pele (stories honoring volcano goddess Pele), and stories of procreation. It is scholarship in action.

Each category contained 15 to 20 dances, and to master a dance and progress with his study, he needed to first learn the footsteps and moves, then memorize the drumming, learn the leo (words) and then, as he puts it, “go research the thing.” That meant trips to Bishop Museum to compile written reports, after which he’d tie it all together with a comprehensive ... performance of music, dance and chant.

Multiply that by 20 songs, and then multiply that by four categories, and you start to get an idea of the scope of work required for kumu.

Visit Kukona in his Wailuku dance studio and he’ll show you binders filled with his research, meticulously categorized and stored. You’ll also find photos of his ‘ūniki ceremony, where he wore a blue kīhei, or traditional cape, as his progression from student to kumu was formally recognized by his kumu, Mae Kamāmalu Klein.

It’s a process that took him over two decades, and a path he currently walks with his students. Kukona expects that with the same level of commitment, they will one day become kumu themselves.

On top of it all is ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, the native

Hawaiian language. Kukona believes fluency is absolutely crucial toward being a master dancer.

“When you have the capacity to essentially translate a piece of artwork with your hands, knowing that you know what you’re doing, it signifies the brilliance of the dancer,” he says. “When you have control of the words that you’re gesturing, you’ve ultimately unlocked the secret of that dance. And really, it isn’t even a dance. You’re using your gestures to translate for the audience. That’s a whole other level of dancer.”

Kukona learned the language from listening to his great-grandparents, two of whom were pure Hawaiian.

“Even though they didn’t want me to speak it, I still learned it when they spoke,” he noted.

His grandparents and great-grandparents were raised at a time when the native language was suppressed, though by the time Kukona was in school at Kamehameha, the cultural awakening, or Hawaiian Renaissance, had already begun to take off.

There was one special skill, however, that his grandmother was more than happy to pass on.

“My grandma was a seamstress on O‘ahu,” says Kukona, “and when I’d go her house in Nānākuli on the weekends, she’d make me shirts and shorts. One day I told her, ‘Grandma, I want to learn how to do that.’ So when I was in the seventh grade, I made my first aloha shirt and shorts. When I got back to the dorms, my friend would say, ‘Where you get that?’

And I’d tell them I made it myself.”

Kukona went on to formally study textiles and design at University of Hawai‘i, and he continues the craft by helping sew costumes for dancers in his hālau.

“Some of the students we get, maybe they live in

(Opposite page) Rehearsing at Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium before Merrie Monarch, with King Kalākaua looking on.

(This page) Many hands make lei, essential adornments for their performances.

He’ll often provide scholarships, or have students do chores in exchange for tuition, and even arrange to give students rides ...

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way, and that we’re helping keep those kids off the street and away from bad activities.”

BETWEEN TEACHING AT HIS HĀLAU up to six days per week, traveling to Japan and his schedule of live performances, Kukona—amazingly—still finds time to sit down and write new songs.

Those instances, he says, are rarely planned, as he’s quick to pen words for life events that are happening to him in real time.

When his mother was recently hospitalized, Kukona reveals that the words just “came to him,” and that he wrote an entire song, both lyrics and music, in the span of 45 minutes.

That’s double the amount of time, however, that it took to write the lyrics for “The Bullet Train Song,” which came to Kukona while traveling through Japan, and which is featured on his debut album.

What’s also important is that when Kukona writes songs, he first pens them in Hawaiian, not English.

There are concepts and values, feelings and words, he adds, that simply cannot be expressed the same way in English as they can with ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i.

As an accomplished composer with a generous spirit, Kukona has lots of praise for his peers and fellow Hawaiian artists.

In choosing a recent song for Merrie Monarch, he heard a track by Kuana Torres Kahele and “instantly fell in love.”

The song, entitled “Polehoonalani,” honors the island of Ni‘ihau, a place known for exquisite lei that are intricately made from tiny, delicate seashells.

As part of their costume for Merrie Monarch, each one of Kukona’s dancers picked his or her own poleho shells—a type of miniature cowrie—and then learned how to turn them into lei, as done in the Ni‘ihau style.

It’s an example of how, when choosing music, Kukona looks for pieces with cultural value that stretches beyond the dance.

“Because,” says Kukona, “those 25 girls are going cherish those leis for probably the rest of their lives.

Then they can pass them on to their daughters and granddaughters. And at the end of the day, that greatly exceeds some dust-collecting thing that will probably just sit in the corner.”

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(This page) The ipu (gourd) is a powerful accompaniemnt to the chant. (Opposite page) Wearing priceless kūpe‘e shells that jangle during hula, the kumu observes protocol before a performance.

the homesteads, or they don’t have a lot of money.

Because I can do these things, I try to help when I can. Hula is expensive, and I hate doing fundraisers,” he commented.

For some financial perspective, an ‘auna dress for a hula competition could cost 150 dollars, and when you multiply that by 25 dancers, the costs begin to add up. For a competition like Merrie Monarch, aside from everyone’s flights and hotel rooms, the costumes are the biggest expense.

If he happens to be there for work, he may shop for fabrics in Los Angeles. While Kukona tries to save money where he can, he also admits he’ll spare no expense to ensure the costumes have the highest level of integrity, and that they’re strongly connected to the songs they’re dancing.

“Whatever it costs to get that particular hue of brown that will match the dirt in that particular place represented in the song, we go all in,” he continues passionately. “What we put on that stage says this: Because we’re supposedly of this caliber of dance, our adornments are also going to be of the highest caliber.”

Outside of helping to save money on dresses, Kukona often goes out of his way to make sure that students with limited means are able to join the hālau.

He’ll often provide scholarships, or have students do chores in exchange for tuition, and even arrange to give students rides if they don’t have a way to the studio.

“I feel good that we’re helping the community that

“When you have the capacity to essentially translate a piece of artwork with your hands ... it signifies the brilliance of the dancer�

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An Artist’s Journey THE MULTI-LAYERED WORLD OF MARY MITSUDA

Photography by DANA EDMUNDS

PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

Story by GRADY TIMMONS

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When

Honolulu artist Mary Mitsuda created “Sketchbook Piñata” for the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, she had no idea it would become one of her most recognized works. The mysterious and inviting painting, which can be viewed just off the hotel lobby, bears all the hallmarks of her distinctive style—the signature drips and soft white rectangular glazes, the subtle textures and layers of color, and the segmentation of the canvas into strips and squares, which in this instance creates the illusion of looking through a bamboo forest.

“It’s a suggestive piece,” Mitsuda says of the large format, acrylicon-canvas and panel abstract. “I’m amazed at how many people have seen it. I’m told a father and his son were looking at it and finding stories. That’s how I think of my work. It provides glimpses of recognition that draw the viewer in.”

After “Sketchbook Piñata” was unveiled in 2008, the Four Seasons featured it in an ad promoting its 2,500-piece collection of original contemporary Hawai‘i-based art. The ad, which depicted a young woman seated on a bench gazing up at the painting, ran for several years.

“It was the perfect piece to use as a beckoning call,” says Julie Cline, a noted international consultant and curator who put the collection together. “So many guests have told me it’s their favorite. I think it’s the wonder of it. The mystery. You can imagine any part of Hawai‘i in that painting. You can see different things the longer you stare at it, which is what the young woman seated suggests.”

Cline calls Mitsuda “the Mark Rothko of Hawai‘i,” a reference to a renowned 20th-century American abstract expressionist whose work commands millions. Others simply call her the finest contemporary painter in Hawai‘i today. Her works are included in many public, private and corporate collections, as well as in high-end restaurants, department stores, condominiums and hotels. On Maui, she has additional pieces at the Four Seasons Wailea, as well as pieces at the Fairmont Kea Lani and at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua.

Since striking out on her own in 1986, Mitsuda’s work has been featured in scores of exhibitions, including major solo shows at the Contemporary Museum of Honolulu’s 1999 Biennial, and at the First Hawaiian Center in 2002 and 2014. The Honolulu Museum of Art, the Hawai‘i State Art Museum, and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts all own her work.

“Mary has such great natural talent,” says Cline, who grew up in Hawai‘i and now works out of Santa Barbara. “I love the way she’s taken representational art and abstracted it with these beautiful layers of paint and glazes to make it a search for what’s underneath. She’s really one of the great artists of Hawai‘i on an international level. She can hold her own anywhere.”

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Born in 1949 and raised in ‘Aiea, Mitsuda attributes her interest in art to her mother, whose family owned the plantation store at Halawa Camp above Pearl Harbor, where she spent her early childhood. Her parents were both Nisei, second generation Japanese, and her mother worked as a florist and beautician before embarking on a career as a librarian.

“My mom was very talented and creative and aesthetic. She could pretty much do anything,” Mitsuda says. “She wove lauhala. She sewed. She decorated cakes, made corsages and did lettering, linocuts and print fabrics. We were always making things. Back then, that’s what you did at home because there was no TV until I was about five.”

Mitsuda never set out to become an artist. After high school, she entered the University of Hawai‘i intent on teaching English, but quickly abandoned that pursuit and joined a group of friends doing experimental art in the school’s ceramics and sculpture department.

While at the university, she took drawing and painting classes and got a student job as an English curriculum illustrator. That led to other art-related jobs, and after earning her BFA in 1976, she was hired at the Honolulu Advertiser’s Contemporary Arts Center.

Over the next decade there, she rose from part-time assistant to director, overseeing a prized collection of contemporary art, rare stamps and letters. The experience influenced her profoundly. Years later, when she did her first major solo show, the pieces were all based on the folded letters she had read and transcribed. “The idea and physical feeling of having a person’s life open in your hands, reaching across time, was a very important experience for me,” she says.

It was at The Contemporary Arts Center that Mitsuda also saw an abstract painting by Irish-born artist Sean Scully. “At the time, I was not really into what one would call abstract or simple shapes,” she says. “But when I saw that Scully piece, it just stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a real turning point in my art.”

In 1986, when the Contemporary Arts Center relocated and became The Contemporary Museum, Mitsuda left to pursue her own painting. The decision surprised many of her co-workers, including Sharon Twigg-Smith, a well-known Hawai‘i art collector, teacher and curator. Says Twigg-Smith, “I remember her walking into my office one day and saying, ‘Okay, I’ve decided I am going to commit to painting. I am going to commit to being an artist and I am going to paint.’ And I thought, Wow! But she did. She went into her studio and found a way to make her mark. She didn’t deviate.

I so admire that about her.”

Three decades later, Mitsuda still hasn’t deviated. While there have been periods of doubt and struggle, she has pushed through them to become a first-rate painter. She and her husband, Jesse Christensen, a

“At the time, I was not really into ... abstract or simple shapes.”

(Previous spread, from left) "Kasuri Code," 48"x48" acrylic on panel; and Mitsuda's paint-caked apron. (Opposite page) The artist surrounded by her work.

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carpenter and a talented artist himself, own their own home in Honolulu’s Pālolo Valley. The two have been together 44 years, the last 16 married, and recently added a studio in their home where they show their art. Mitsuda’s works include “Lawai‘a,” a simple series of fisherman ink drawings, and a recent abstract painting, “Rocks and Water,” which features brilliant gold rectangles on a sea of blue.

Mitsuda’s real studio, where she goes daily to paint, lies at the back of the valley. It’s a comfortable and good-sized space, complete with a couch, desk, sink, tables and shelves filled with all the accoutrements of a working artist. Paintings in various stages of

(Above) Mitsuda laying background colors.

(Opposite page) A detail of a 30" by 80" work in progress.

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(Above) Mitsuda's essential tools.

(Opposite page) "Rocks and Water," 60"x 60" acrylic on panel.

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development line the studio, and hanging off to one side is Mitsuda’s red apron, caked in paint and a work of art itself.

“In my larger abstract paintings, I mostly use my hands and plastic scrapers,” she says. “I try to create a background that’s inexplicable and then have things suggest themselves and emerge.” When she adds drips, she drags a brush laden with paint across a straight horizontal edge until the weight of the liquid breaks the line and drips slowly down the canvas. She adds glazes to create planes of

separation. The resulting abstraction is left for the viewer to interpret.

“I think of art objects as found objects,” she says. “It should be something that you want to walk across the room to look at, something that draws your attention. We are all naturally curious. When we don’t understand why we are attracted to something, it makes it interesting.”

Mitsuda’s success as an artist is reflected not only in the large body of work she has produced, but also in the number of commissions she receives. In 2010, California architect Wendy Tsuji contracted her to do paintings for award-winning chef Michael Mina, who was opening a new flagship restaurant in San Francisco.

The restaurant was a large space with high ceilings, and Tsuji, who grew up in Honolulu and is attuned to the use of color in her interiors, wanted to fill it with vibrant abstract art.

“I was looking for a Hawai‘i artist whose work was extremely contemporary and could be shown in places like New York,” she says. “I didn’t know Mary at the time, but I had seen her work at the old Pā‘ia Gallery on Maui. In fact, every time I was in Hawai‘i and saw contemporary paintings that I admired, they were always by the same person, Mary Mitsuda. So, I tracked her down.”

Mitsuda did three large pieces for Tsuji, including one called “Journey” that is 11 feet long (it’s only 30 inches high) and features her segmented, filmstrip style. “Mary’s really a colorist at heart,” Tsuji says.

“She’s spent a whole life observing the Hawaiian color palette, and it comes out in her work. That’s why I gravitate toward her art. I grew up in Hawai‘i, and whenever I see her work, even though it’s contemporary and abstract, it captures the colors that actually exist there.”

Tsuji has maintained a close friendship with Mitsuda, as have Twigg-Smith and Cline, all of whom describe the person behind the painter as being one of a kind. “Mary is one of the most inquisitive people on the planet,” says Tsuji. “She’s interested in everything.”

“She’s wicked smart,” adds Twigg-Smith, “and absolutely hilarious.”

Says Cline, “She is so philosophical and deep. And you really see that in her art.”

It’s not well-known, but Mitsuda also paints outdoor frescoes, landscapes and still-life pieces. And like her mother, she weaves lauhala. Beyond that, she is a terrific cook and a voracious reader who lists libraries as being among her favorite places. But her art remains her primary way of engaging with the world, and she doesn’t let these other interests distract her.

“If you’re lucky in life, you know a person or two who is the best at what they do,” says Twigg-Smith. “I have friends on the mainland who are well-known painters, and the ones who visit here and know Mary consider her Hawai‘i’s best. She’s a really good painter. And there are not too many around anywhere.”

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One Voice Becomes a Chorus IN THE MERWIN CONSERVANCY GREEN ROOM

Story by RICK CHATENEVER

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digital age, poetry, a palm forest and a handmade wooden cabin seem almost quaint. But under a towering canopy of trees in a remote Maui valley, one of the world’s most revered literary figures has created such a sanctuary. In Ha‘ikū’s Pe‘ahi Valley, surrounded by palms in an ocean of green, W.S. Merwin has created a life embodying the enlightened, quiet power of his literary canon.

With bookshelves lining every wall, this is the home W.S. (William Stanley) Merwin shared with his wife, Paula, for almost 40 years, until her death in 2017. William, 91, still lives there.

Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and twice the poet laureate of the United States, Merwin is also the translator of such classics as “The Cid,” “The Song of Roland” and “The Satires of Persius,” as well as shorter poems in Spanish, French, German, Russian and more esoteric languages. But he is equally well-known on the Valley Isle for the palm forest he created on land once made barren by misuse and neglect.

Although he was a novice gardener when he began in the 1970s, Merwin planted thousands of trees representing over 400 species of palms from around the world. His rare, 19-acre tropical palm forest is now considered one of the most important assemblages of palms

The conditions didn’t support many of the native plants he attempted in the beginning. But, adds Tekula, the native palms did well. “And then he fell in love with palms. It became about planting palms from all over the world.”

Betsy Knight, caretaker on the property between 1998 and 2008, recalls the Merwins’ routine while creating the oasis.

“William got up and very jealously, like a lot of writers, guarded his morning time. When he was done writing and having lunch, he and Paula would go out planting, watering and working like slaves.

I remember them covered with mud, weeds in their hair, in clothes caked with Maui dirt.”

Now, artists and writers working on related projects occasionally spend some time in the garden. The Conservancy’s new executive director, Sonnet Kekilia Coggins, envisions “a more robust, longerterm residency program for creative visionaries and thought leaders across disciplines and practices who are working to renew their fields, their work, themselves, through imagination and wonder.”

But those who will never set foot in the forest can still experience the Merwin mindset of poetic thought, a way of being in the mo-

“It’s [The Green Room] a concert for the mind.” in the world, according to the Merwin Conservancy, the organization created to inherit the property and protect it in perpetuity.

On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree The two lines from his poem “Place” have become his signature.

And like its owner, the land has a story to tell.

The forest is open to the public on monthly “Open Garden Days,” explains Sara Tekula, the Conservancy’s director of programs. People reserve months in advance, and of the dozens who apply, fifteen people are chosen for what will be a rare, intimate privilege: experiencing, firsthand, this special piece of land.

“It was once a beautiful forest, like most of Maui, but after some failed attempts at growing pineapple, it was kind of abandoned and left for dead,” continues Tekula. “When Mr. Merwin found it in the late ’70s, it had become overgrown with scraggly invasive plants.

When he first tried to plant on the land, it was like trying to plant into a dirt road.”

After building the home where he would produce great works of poetry and translation, Merwin took on another role, evolving from novice gardener and land restorer into “one of the most knowledgeable people now, after years and years of working with the land,” says Tekula.

ment in a place where art and nature are inseparably intertwined.

It’s called The Green Room, an arts and ecology salon series.

Since 2013, it has presented more than 40 authors and poets, musicians, filmmakers, artists, actors, scientists and scholars, most of them in McCoy Studio Theater at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

Karen Bouris, the Conservancy’s first executive director, recalls, “The name was born on a Baldwin Beach walk with me and a friend.

The Green Room seemed perfect—representing the environmental angle, the canopy-like green room of Merwin’s palm forest, and the insider-status of a green room backstage or on set. With The Green Room, the hope was to create an intimate and engaging audience experience unlike anything that existed on Maui at the time.”

“It’s a concert for the mind,” sums up Molli Fleming, of a typical Green Room experience. Fleming is a longtime friend of the Merwins who began reading to the poet in 2015, when his eyesight declined. “It’s like a TED Talk that goes deeper. I’m sitting among people who are like-minded ...people going to something not necessarily to be entertained, but to be moved and educated and involved in a discussion.”

Coggins describes “these push-pulls between privacy and isolation and convening around ideas.” Clearly, she says, the visits to the

(Opposite page) Merwin and his beloved late wife, Paula; relaxing amid his palm forest; and at work in his studio.

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But those who will never set foot in the forest

can still experience the Merwin mindset of poetic thought

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garden itself are “private, intimate, meant for very few people. The Green Room can be the charismatic, wider-reaching connection pointing to these values that William and Paula have and had.”

When the Merwins first proposed creating an organization to preserve what they had created, Betsy Knight had her doubts. It would entail contracts, legalities, fundraising.

“There will always be poetry in the Green Room” —SARA TEKULA

“Their privacy was so important to them. They had created such a peaceful way of life, knowing what they valued and living it every day. The thought that it was going to be made public felt awful. But they found a way that was very ‘them,’ very expressive of their values, that had real substance.”

Green Room presenters range from fellow American poets laureate to Hawaiian musical artists and scholars. A very abbreviated list includes Tracy K. Smith, Billy Collins, Bill McKibben, Naomi Shihab Nye, Cathy Song, Edward Hirsch, Dr. Pualani Kanaka‘oleKanahele, Michael Ondaatje, Jane Hirshfield, Susan Casey, Terry Tempest Williams, Bill Porter (aka Red Pine), Keali‘i Reichel, Susan Middleton, Héctor Elizondo and W.S. Merwin himself.

“They all surprise me,” says Fleming. “After I’m out of the clutches, the spell of one lasts for days. Each person lights me up— until the next one.”

Perhaps it’s a panel of Native Hawaiians exploring kaona, hidden meanings of words, like a language within the language of the powerful oli, or chants, and the lovely mele, or songs, of their culture.

Hawaiian was a spoken language for more than a millennium before it took written form with the arrival of Westerners to the islands.

This sense of hidden meaning, the elusiveness of language, can itself become a point of departure for the speaker at the podium and the minds filling the intimate theater space.

Take Bill Porter, a translator of sacred Buddhist and Taoist texts who sought out reclusive sages on remote Chinese mountains for his book “The Search for Solitude: China’s Hermit Tradition.” He likened the art of translation to “dancing with a beautiful woman, being mindful not to step on her toes as you try to get closer to her mysteries.”

But the mysteries remain. The words can never be more than approximations of the truths known by our hearts. That’s consistent with the Conservancy’s namesake.

“There’s nothing in what William has made that can be put in an easy category, a discipline or a field,” says Coggins. “The way he’s been in the world, what he’s made of his work, whether it be his home, his garden or his poetry, doesn’t pay very much mind to notions 56

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of expertise. There’s more of a reverence for curiosity than for mastery.

There’s a common root system to all kinds of creative expression.”

When Merwin ended his second laureateship with a speech at the Library of Congress, he acknowledged “a kind of point on my compass all my life. I don’t think it’s intelligence. It’s always without any doubt been the imagination. It’s the source of compassion. It’s the source of the arts. It’s the thing that makes us—that makes children and those of us who remain children—fascinated by and recognizing something in every other form of life, fascination with animals, with trees, with growing things, with everything that’s alive ... ” As Fleming read to him on the back lānai of the cabin, where

Merwin in his serene Maui environment, communing with the palm forest he created.

each palm he planted decades earlier had become a magnificent part of the surrounding landscape, the world-renowned poet was less formal. He was, literally, at home.

“We would read for two hours, and he would be moved to share stories. I had him as my own private Gandalf, Merlin, Dumbledore.

I had this fabulous mentor who would quote poems and little bits of Shakespeare and tell stories about authors and poets.

“He never complains about how he’s feeling. He will always bring a story I tell back to a Buddhist conclusion. He’ll look me deep in the eyes and say, ‘The Buddha said …,’ ‘The Buddha’s last words were ….’”

Merwin’s way of seeing and being is carried on by each new Green Room presenter. Some are old friends. Others come out of awe and respect. Billy Collins and Tracy K. Smith admitted to being slightly intimidated in his presence—despite being poets laureate themselves.

“I keep visualizing this fractal that forms with him at the center of it, this idea that there are so many ways to connect to his story and touch our lives through all of these other people,” says Sara Tekula.

“We like to see it as the kinds of people William and Paula had around them at the dinner table. They could be a scientist, a teacher, a famous photographer, the gardener from down the street. Paula was a major guiding force in curating the Green Room while she was still with us. She helped steer us to people who would come.”

In her time caretaking the property, Betsy Knight recalls, “They would travel. William was always presenting his work at writers conferences or being poet laureate. He had a cold-water flat in New York. So he went to that world. Now the Conservancy and Green Room are bringing that world he was part of to Maui.”

Coggins and Tekula are brainstorming and reimagining the series, which now presents its speakers on O‘ahu in tandem with their Maui visits. They envision perhaps a series of three Green Rooms, a month apart, spanning the arts and sciences, the natural world.

For Coggins, Merwin embodies “a way of being, a way of making in this world. You might be making poems, you might be making paintings, you might be making policy.”

“There will always be poetry in the Green Room,” notes Tekula, “and looking at our shared humanity, imagination and, of course, the natural world.”

Photographer Susan Middleton illustrated this cross-pollination recently in the Green Room.

Almost 20 years earlier, she and fellow photographer David Liittschwager had traveled to Maui hoping Merwin would write the foreword to their first photo collaboration about the rare flora and fauna of the Hawaiian Islands. Merwin agreed to do it and provided the title, “Remains of a Rainbow.”

Middleton went on to create a distinctive style of portraiture, capturing animals from majestic eagles and sleek panthers to spineless deep-sea flatworms, barnacles, squids, jellyfish and shrimp. The images seem to stare out of the frame, catching the viewer in their gaze.

As elegant as her images are, each issuing a silent call for environmental activism, Middleton is equally engaged in sharing the grand adventure she has made of her art and life. She is a master storyteller.

Her words sound like poetry.

But in this constellation of environmental and literary superstars, one individual always stands out. It's Merwin—poet, humanitarian, and, even with his failing vision, ever the global visionary.

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Rhapsody in Red BEHOLD THE PETAL, ITS PORTAL AND POWER

Photography by RACHEL OLSSON T HE HAWA IIA N word piko refers to the navel, the

summit of a mountain, the crown of the head.

Here we consider the flower: delicate, ethereal, a marvel of color and geometry, centered around its piko, its portal of power. The fragile hibiscus and the hardier plumeria unfold in these pages in a chorus of red and pink, the colors of love and passion—seemingly still, but whirling with energy.

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While the world touts the creativity of the human mind, consider the volcano. Nowhere is nature’s flamboyance more brilliant than in a volcanic eruption, the ultimate spectacle of creation.

In Pele’s triumphant volcanic dance, Kīlauea Volcano on Hawai‘i island PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

has erupted continuously since 1983, destroying land and creating it anew.

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A Trip to the Stars MAUI FILM FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANIVERSARY

By RICK CHATENEVER

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(OPPOSITE PAGE) ©RANDY JAY BRAUN. (THIS PAGE) ©RACHEL OLSSON (4)

Twenty years ago,

Maui Film Festival founder and director Barry Rivers fired up the projectors for the first time, transforming Wailea’s Gold and Emerald golf courses into a sublime outdoor movie theater he dubbed the Celestial Cinema.

The festival returns June 12 to 16 to celebrate its anniversary. Those 20 years can be measured all sorts of ways: One-thousand movies shown. More than 50 film artists honored, most with past, present or future Oscars and other prestigious awards and nominations.

Wailea’s most glamorous parties and culinary events, far too numerous to recall.

For those wanting to eat their way through the festival at its elegant food booths, A Taste of Summer at Grand Wailea kicks things off, with gourmet grazing and glimpses of the year’s honorees, most of whom attend. Goldie Hawn made an unannounced appearance in 2016, when her son Wyatt Russell received the Rising Star Award.

The Four Seasons Resort’s A Taste of Chocolate earns its name because chocolate is the first ingredient in all the recipes, especially at the bars. And Saturday’s Taste of Wailea, atop a scenic hillside overlooking Celestial Cinema, is easily mistaken for a movie itself, with its “cast” in the latest aloha wear perfectly lit by the late afternoon sun.

The glitzy soireés and filmmaker panels are scattered throughout Wailea Resort over the five-day festival, and film screenings also take place in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on the other side of the island. But MFF’s signature, its most recognizable image, remains the Celestial Cinema.

It’s a screening room for the gods, with a seating capacity (bring your own beach chairs and blankets) for more than 3,000 humans. Haleakalā rises majestically behind the screen, and panoramas of paradise stretch out to all horizons. The sky is the real star of the show, morphing from gold-tinged lateafternoon sunshine through stripes of pastel twilight into a balmy, inky dome full of stars. Harriett Witt is the resident astronomer, turning the audience, casually clad in shorts and beach flip-flops, into astronauts touring the night sky before each evening’s screening.

People come to Celestial Cinema to watch movies but are quickly seduced by their surroundings.

“I like to call it the one and only Celestial Cinema,” says Rivers. “There is so much about Wailea that really runs through the festival’s DNA—a perfect fit.”

While small in comparison to many other festivals around the world (Rivers likes the image of a cinema “jewel box”), MFF has established its own unique identity, not just for its spectacular yet laid-back setting, but for its outlook on life.

Surfing movies are always part of the mix, as are music documentaries, environmental calls to action, and dramas and comedies from around the world, all tending to accentuate the positive.

When selecting movies to screen, Rivers strives to “bring people an alternative reality based on the compassion they can show for each other, the empathy, the way they care about environmental sustainability—all the things that matter.”

This philosophy has appealed to a stellar list of honorees, from awards-laden legends—including Viola Davis, Bryan Cranston, Clint Eastwood and Pierce Brosnan—to up-and-comers like Brie Larson, Zac Efron, Adam Driver and Michael B. Jordan, recognized by the festival the instant before they arrived on award ballots and the industry A-list.

“Some were household names, others were unknown before they got here. They appear in smart stuff, they appear in important stuff. It’s a kick to have had them before that happened,” adds Rivers.

The festival casts an equally strong spell on the audience.

“So few people spend even two minutes sitting outside just enjoying this planet we’re able to call home,” Rivers concludes. “Doing it for a couple of hours, even if it’s just once a year, as the moon rises over the screen, you’re so wrapped up in the grandeur of it all, it just makes you understand, or fall in love with the planet again, as you might have as a young kid.”

(Opposite page) Celestial Cinema is the signature event. (This page) From top, Russell and Gianna of Matteo's Osteria; delectables and designer cocktails from the culinary events.

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FUN IN THE SUN

A Salute to the Sun

WHAT A WINTER. The Polar Vortex froze eyelashes and beards and record low

temperatures were recorded, making it hazardous to be outdoors. The whole country watched and felt empathy, and Islanders wished there was a way to send sun and warmth to the hard-hit areas.

Even in the worst conditions, Hawai‘i is fortunate to experience mild weather year-round. Islanders don’t take this for granted; they celebrate the sun, the shoreline, the bounty of fish, the days when rain falls magically from skies that are sunny, the surfers living their passion on the waves, the luxurious lazing on a beach towel with sunscreen and a good book.

We are islands in the sun, graced by weather and a rhythm of life that exist in few other places in the world. On Maui’s South Shore, where the Coastal Path winds along the shoreline and the views of Kaho‘olawe compete 68

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with the sunset, passersby find themselves embracing the fullness of life, the sacredness of the moment.

The Wailea coast offers countless other amenities. Luxury resorts line the five renowned white-sand beaches that define the scalloped shoreline. From north to south, they are: Keawakapu, Mōkapu, Ulua, Wailea and Polo. Each beach has its own distinctive features, and each is within a stone’s throw of the finest restaurants, lounges, spas, and amenities that are Wailea Resort’s signature. A walk along the coast could end with a beverage, a spontaneous lunch or snack, or a moment of contemplation in a seaside chair or oceanfront restaurant.

These charms may be specific to Wailea, but the island has its own considerable offerings. Maui’s 120 miles of shoreline and 30 miles of beaches are a beachgoer’s bonanza, a celebrated signature of the island.

©THOMAS BARWICK/GETTY IMAGES

In living color

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The Shops at Wailea ~ 3750 Wailes Alanui Dr., Ste B16 | Wailea, Maui, HI 96753 | Email: Brad@WaileaRealty.com

©ISAAC ARJONILLA

[THE GUIDE]

Dine, shop and explore the sights of Wailea

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[ T H E G U I D E ] EXPLORE

The Recipe The Recipefor for a Perfect Day a Perfect Day

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WA I L E A P R O P E RT I E S ANDAZ MAUI WAILEA RESORT andazmaui.com

©MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES

WHY WHEN THERE ARE countless enchanting

destinations all over the world, do travelers flock to Wailea? Ask someone you randomly encounter, and the answer could be “weather,” “beaches,” “our hotel,” “Haleakalā,” “fine dining,” “the employees,” “golf,” “tennis,” “my kids love it,” “We came as honeymooners, and now we come with our family,” “My parents brought us here as kids, and we’re continuing the tradition,” “paddling,” “shopping,” and any of countless reasons several generations have enjoyed this resort since the first golf course opened in 1972.

Continuity and familiarity are deeply valued in the visitor industry, and so is the quality of freshness, of being able to see and experience familiar places as if for the first time. With 10 million visitors to Hawai‘i in 2018—a 5.9 percent increase from 2017—those who thrive in the hospitality industry are those who overcome the challenges of changing times by honoring traditional culture as they evolve as a modern resort.

Pono is a prominent and deeply revered value at Wailea Resort. It is both noun and adjective, meaning goodness, correct, upright and proper. It governs practices, behavior, policies and programs. A superb day entails enviable weather and environmental conditions, but at Wailea Resort there’s also pono.

Pono is what drives the employees of the three 18hole championship courses and 11 state-of-the-art tennis courts to provide good service. Pono is the in-the-welcome smile and warm greeting of those who welcome you to the hotel. Nature’s offerings— beaches for snorkeling, swimming, paddling; ideal weather and mountain and ocean views—are nature’s part of the partnership. The fine dining, spas, watersports, recreation and luxury amenities play their part in your enjoyment, but there’s also the silent power of aloha. It’s in every lei, every greeting, every smile. And it’s one and the same as pono.

FAIRMONT KEA LANI fairmont.com/kealani

FOUR SEASONS MAUI fourseasons.com/maui

GRAND WAILEA grandwailea.com

HOTEL WAILEA hotelwailea.com

RESIDENCE INN MAUI AT WAILEA residenceinnmauiwailea.com

THE SHOPS AT WAILEA shopsatwailea.com

WAILEA BEACH RESORT waileamarriott.com

WAILEA GATEWAY CENTER wailea-gateway.com

WAILEA GOLF CLUB waileagolf.com

WAILEA RESORT ASSOCIATION wailearesortassociation.com

WAILEA TENNIS CENTER waileatennis.com

WAILEA TOWN CENTER waileatowncenter.info

WAILEA VILLAGE CENTER waileavillageshops.com

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[ T H E G U I D E ] DINE

AMA BAR & GRILL Fairmont Kea Lani

808.875.4100 / Hawai‘i Modern BISTRO MOLOKINI Grand Wailea

808.875.1234 / Island Cuisine BOTERO LOUNGE Grand Wailea

808.875.1234 / Cocktails BUMBYE BEACH BAR Andaz Maui Wailea Resort

808.573.1234 / Cocktails CAFÉ KULA MARKETPLACE Grand Wailea

808.875.1234 / Gourmet Market MAKANA MARKET + CAFE Fairmont Kea Lani

808.875.4100 / Gourmet Market CHEESEBURGER GRILLE & TAP ROOM The Shops at Wailea

808.874.8990 / American THE COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF The Shops at Wailea

808.891.2045 / Coffee Shop DUO Four Seasons Resort

808.874.8000 / Steak/Seafood FABIANI'S WAILEA Wailea Gateway Center

808.874.1234 / Pizza/Pasta FERRARO’S BAR E RISTORANTE Four Seasons Resort

808.874.8000 / Italian GANNON'S Wailea Gold Course

808.875.8080 / Hawai‘i Regional GRAND DINING ROOM MAUI Grand Wailea

808.875.1234 / American HONOLULU COFFEE CO. The Shops at Wailea

808.875.6630 / Coffee Shop

MOKAPU MARKET Andaz Maui Wailea Resort

808.875.7710 / Lu‘au Show

808.573.1234 / 24-Hour Market

HUMBLE MARKET KITCHIN Wailea Beach Resort

MONKEYPOD KITCHEN Wailea Gateway Center

808.879.4655 / Seafood/Sushi

808.891.2322 / Handcrafted

HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUA‘A Grand Wailea

MORIMOTO MAUI Andaz Maui Wailea Resort

808.875.1234 / Hawai‘i Seasonal

808.243.4766 / Japanese

ISLAND GOURMET MARKETS The Shops at Wailea

MULLIGANS ON THE BLUE 100 Kaukahi St.

808.874.5055 / Deli/Sushi/Market

808.874.1131 / Irish/American

KA‘ANA KITCHEN Andaz Maui Wailea Resort

NICK’S FISHMARKET MAUI Fairmont Kea Lani

808.573.1234 / Hawai‘i Regional

808.879.7224 / Modern/Seafood

KAPA BAR & GRILL Wailea Beach Resort

THE PINT & CORK The Shops at Wailea

808.879.1922 / American/Pacific Rim

808.727.2038 / Gastropub

K Fairmont Kea Lani

PITA PARADISE Wailea Gateway Center

808.875.2210 / Plantation Era

808.879.7177 / Mediterranean

LAPPERT’S HAWAII The Shops at Wailea

THE RESTAURANT AT HOTEL WAILEA Hotel Wailea

808.879.1711 / Ice Cream LEHUA LOUNGE Andaz Maui Wailea Resort

808.573.1234 / Cocktails LINEAGE The Shops at Wailea

808.879.8800 / Hawai‘i Regional LOBBY LOUNGE Four Seasons Resort

808.874.8000 / Cocktails LONGHI'S The Shops at Wailea

808.891.8883 / Mediterranean LUANA Fairmont Kea Lani

808.875.4100 / Cocktails MANOLI'S PIZZA COMPANY 100 Wailea Ike Drive

808.874.7499 / Italian THE MARKET MAUI Wailea Gateway Center

808.879.2433 / Gourmet Pantry MATTEO’S OSTERIA Wailea Town Center

808.891.8466 / Italian

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808.879.2224 / Island Inspired RUTH’S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE The Shops at Wailea

808.874.8880 / Steaks/Seafood SPAGO Four Seasons Resort

808.879.2999 / Pacific Rim STARBUCKS Wailea Beach Resort

808.874.7981 / Coffee Shop SUBWAY Wailea Gateway Center

808.875.7827 / Sandwich/Deli TE AU MOANA Wailea Beach Resort

877.827.2740 / Lu‘au Show TOMMY BAHAMA The Shops at Wailea

808.875.9983 / American/Caribbean VOLCANO GRILL & BAR Grand Wailea

808.875.1234 / American WHALERS GENERAL STORE The Shops at Wailea

808.891.2039 / Deli

RESTAURANT WEEK WAILEA

Every November and May, Wailea restaurants present their finest offerings in prix-fixe menus for just $29, $39, $49 and $59 per person.

RESTAURANT WEEK WAILEA:

May 19-25, 2019 www.restaurantweekwailea.com

©RON DAHLQUIST/GETTY IMAGES

Dining at Wailea

HONUA‘ULA LU‘AU Grand Wailea

4100 Wailea Alanui Dr. | 808 875 2210 | korestaurant.com |

ko_restaurant

Seven years of award-winning service. Six flavorful cultures.

One exceptional dining experience.

SAVOUR The experience of a lifetime, every time.

Best Seafood Restaurant, Maui • Best Resort Restaurant, Maui • Hawaii Magazine, 2018 Humu Lounge 5 pm to 11 pm | Dinner 5 pm to 9:30 pm | Live Entertainment 6 pm to 9 pm

Reservations call 808.875.1234 ext. 2500 WWW.GRANDWAILEA.COM Hawai‘i Seasonal Cuisine Chef de Cuisine Alvin Savella

•

@humuhumumaui

LOCATED AT GRAND WAILEA, A WALDORF ASTORIA RESORT 3850 WAILEA ALANUI, WAILEA, HI 96753

[ T H E G U I D E ] SHOP

OUR CENTERS FOR SHOPPING Haute couture. Art. Locally made gifts. Coffee and sunshine. These retail centers don't miss a beat.

Shopping at Wailea

THE SHOPS AT WAILEA 3750 Wailea Alanui Drive 808.891.6770 theshopsatwailea.com Open daily 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Over 70 shops, galleries, restaurants, a coffeehouse and an ice cream shop are the tip of the iceberg at The Shops at Wailea.

WAILEA GATEWAY CENTER At the intersection of Pi‘ilani Highway and Wailea Ike Drive.

The two-story Gateway is mauka from the coast, with unique peeks of the ocean and the West Maui Mountains. Chocolate, a day spa, coffee and pastries reign here, along with restaurants.

WAILEA TOWN CENTER North on Ike Place off Ike Drive just above Wailea Alanui Drive.

The Wailea Town Center offers a range of services and hidden treasures, including a full-service bank, restaurant and a wine shop.

WAILEA VILLAGE CENTER 100 Wailea Ike Drive

The atrium of The Shops at Wailea at sunset.

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©ISAAC ARJONILLA

This center includes Urgent Care, Manoli’s Pizza Company, Water Lily Maui, the Wailea Blue Golf Course and other services.

PLAY MORE

TM

BEAUTIFUL DAYS, BEAUTIFUL PLAYS Three award-winning courses, ample sunshine, and gorgeous views from every hole – there’s more golf to enjoy at Wailea than at any other resort in Hawaii.

Even better: play more, save more with multi-round, family-friendly and afternoon deals.

You’re just a tee time away.

Follow us!

www.waileagolf.com | TOLL-FREE 1.888.328.MAUI | 808.875.7450 WAILEA GOLD | WAILEA EMERALD | WAILEA BLUE

OVER 70 OF THE FINEST NAMES IN STYLE, ART, CUISINE & SERVICES. THESHOPSATWAILEA.COM validated parking. first hour free. additional 3 hours with minimum purchase.

[ T H E G U I D E ] SHOP

Shops, Galleries and More

PACIFIC DREAM PHOTOGRAPHY

A photo studio on property captures the special moments of your visit.

Andaz Maui Wailea Resort 3550 Wailea Alanui Drive 808.573.1234

Fairmont Kea Lani

‘ÄWILI SPA AND SALON

4100 Wailea Alanui Drive 808.875.4100

Along with custom-blended scrubs, lotions, oils and body butters, the spa boutique includes fashions by local designers.

MOKAPU MARKET

Prepared takeaway foods include pastries, paninis, pizza, gelato and locally crafted beverages, all in a 24hour convenience store with style.

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MAKANA MARKET + CAFE

Makana, meaning “gift” in Hawaiian, is a gourmet marketplace offering locally grown and roasted coffees, such as nitro cold-brew and pour-over. The Lot35 specialty teas are the perfect match for the house-crafted pastries, sandwiches, salads and pizzas. “Pang’s

Poke” offers fresh line-caught fish from Maui and Hawai‘i waters. The Market offers a wide selection of sundries, including sunglasses, sunscreen, hats, toiletries and other essentials.

PACIFIC DREAM PHOTOGRAPHY

This is the on-the-spot memory maker on property, with a studio and professionals on hand.

WILLOW STREAM SPA BOUTIQUE

LE SURF WAILEA

The boutique’s thoughtful selection of women’s, men’s and children’s products is designed to meet wideranging resort needs. Favorite and familiar designers share their exclusive offerings, and newly discovered brands make a splashy entrance.

This luxurious, state-of-the-art spa highlights the latest and finest in skin care, bath, body and beauty products, with treatments to match. Locally made jewelry, activewear, loungewear and much more are the epitome of comfort with fashion: Spiritual Gangster, Shu Uemura Art of Hair, Kerstin Florian International, NuFace, LightStim and Knesko Skin are just the tip of the iceberg.

©THE SHOPS AT WAILEA

SHO P S O N P R O P ERTY

Four Seasons Resort Maui 3900 Wailea Alanui Drive 808.874.8000

accessories and apparel are included in this well-thought-out selection for men, women and kids.

HILDGUND JEWELRY

22 KNOTS

Fine jewelry, high-end fashion and beach-to-evening style make a strong sartorial statement here, with iconic labels—Missoni, Lanvin, Pucci included.

Luxury gems, diamonds and unique designs are the signature of Hildgund’s, long considered one of Hawai‘i’s premier jewelers.

PORTS

CABANA

Chic, comfortable and exclusive printed tees, rash guards by James Perse and designer beachwear with flair are among the boutique’s finds. Shoes,

Travel essentials—sundries, logowear, snacks and gift ideas—are covered in this thoughtful, colorful selection.

SPA AND WELLNESS CENTER

A transformative sanctuary of natural health and beauty, delivered under the guidance of Four Seasons Maui's talented therapists and wellness experts.

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ARTIST SHOWCASE EVENT

BEACH & POOL STORE

Immerse yourself in Maui's exquisite open air gallery, showcasing an array of media, from wood sculpture to basket weaving. Hours: 8 a. m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.

Water toys, hats, sun shirts, Maui Jim sunglasses, GoPro accessories and tanning lotions are just some of the water-friendly products you’ll find here. Located next to the activity pool registration desk.

The Grand Wailea Shops and Galleries

CHRISTOPHER EGAN GALLERY

3850 Wailea Alanui Drive 808.875.1234

With his photographic artistry, Christopher Egan creates extraordinary treasures to take home with you.

AKAMAI BUSINESS CENTER

CRUISE BOUTIQUE

A full-service center for copying, faxing, office equipment rentals, shipping and all your business needs.

Many consider this the finest selection of swimwear in Hawai‘i. The sizes range from 0 to 18, and labels include Seafolly, Maaji and Profile by Gottex.

(FROM LEFT) ©ISAAC ARJONILLA; ©SYDA PRODUCTIONS/SHUTTERSTOCK; ©THE SHOPS AT WAILEA

[ T H E G U I D E ] SHOP

Longhi’s Ko’olina 7:30 am -10:00 pm 92-161 Waipahe Place Kapolei, HI 96707 808.671.8887

[ T H E G U I D E ] SHOP

This full-service rental car desk is located in the main lobby, next to the concierge desks.

GRAND IMAGE BOUTIQUE

Top brands at this spa boutique include Eminence, ESPA, Moroccanoil, Tom Ford and Beyond Yoga, as well as Grand Wailea’s signature Honey Mango collection and Healing Waters of Maui Bath Salts. The boutique is located on the ground floor of the Chapel Wing at Spa Grande.

GRAND JEWELS OF WAILEA

High-fashion finds include estate, vintage, rare and all manner of precious gems, including diamond, platinum

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and 18-karat jewelry and one-of-a-kind pieces by Norman Silverman Diamonds, Inc.

of the Islands. Many of the intricately crafted pieces are enhanced by Tahitian, Akoya or freshwater pearls.

KI‘I GALLERY

PACIFIC DREAM PHOTOGRAPHY

Handmade jewelry, hand-blown art glass and luxurious pieces of luminous South Seas pearls are among the standouts in this long-standing, respected Maui gallery.

Capture your Grand Wailea moments with a 45-minute beach portrait session. Advance reservations are required: gwr@pacificdreamphotography.com, or visit the lobby concierge for an appointment. Complimentary to Grand Wailea guests only.

MAKANA, GIFTS WITH ALOHA

Specializing in Maui and Hawai‘i-made gifts, Makana offers a wide selection of sundries, island-style treasures and souvenirs.

NA HOKU

Na Hoku’s exotic, elegant jewelry is inspired by the beauty and traditions

PINEAPPLE PATCH

Imaginative toys, books, puzzles and beachwear are among the delights for children: hats, sun shirts, even a lifesize mermaid tail to swim in.

PINK LILIA, A LILLY PULITZER ® SIGNATURE STORE

Lilly Pulitzer items include dresses, bags, women’s resortwear and accessories, all in the bright, cheerful Lilly Pulitzer palette.

QUIKSILVER

Find the latest Roxy and Quiksilver swimwear here, along with board shorts, hats, sunglasses, backpacks and all you need to catch a wave or explore Maui. The selection of GoPro cameras and accessories promises an active life in the waves.

WAILEA MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SHOP

With Tommy Bahama, Toes on The Nose, Johnnie-O and other spirited menswear lines, the spotlight

(LEFT AND RIGHT) ©THE SHOPS AT WAILEA; (CENTER) ©ISAAC ARJONILLA

ENTERPRISE

is on men. From swimwear to graphic tees, hats, sunglasses and aloha shirts for the lū‘au, the man with style will feel right at home.

Wailea Beach Resort

MANDARA SPA

Maui’s Island Essence mango-coconut body wash and Elemis lime-ginger scrub are among the finds at this fragrant spa shop. Treatment lines and beauty products uphold the EastWest theme.

3700 Wailea Alanui Drive 808.879.1922

Nike, Adidas, Tail, TravisMathew, Puma and others. The Blue Course also offers a notable selection of Maui Jim and Nike sunglasses.

Wailea Golf Club 100 Wailea Golf Club Drive 808.875.7450

Wailea Blue Clubhouse HOLOHOLO MARKET

With snacks and sundries, beach and sports apparel, accessories, souvenirs and distinctive gifts, including resort logowear, this is a shop for day-to-evening needs. And with ice cream, snacks and island-made goodies, it’s a good place to holoholo.

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100 Wailea Ike Drive 808.879.2530 PRO SHOP CLUBHOUSE

The Wailea Blue Course is home to the original Wailea Resort Sea & Sun logo.

The official Wailea logo adorns the latest in resort and golf attire from

Seahorse logo. Included are Adidas, Bugatchi, Eric Javits, Helen Kaminski, JoFit, Nike, Peter Millar, Polo, Puma and TravisMathew, plus top-of-the-line eyewear.

PRO SHOP, GOLD AND EMERALD CLUBHOUSE

Wailea’s award-winning pro shop, one of the largest in Hawai‘i, carries both golf and après-golf attire and accessories featuring the distinctive

Wailea Tennis Club 131 Wailea Ike Place 808.879.1958 PRO SHOP

In addition to logo apparel and accessories, the shop offers re-gripping and racket-stringing services.

(FROM LEFT) ©ISAAC ARJONILLA; ©THE SHOPS AT WAILEA; ©SEBASTIAN SAYEGH

[ T H E G U I D E ] SHOP

You� Artisa� Marke� i� Waile�.

BREAKFAST LUNCH CAFE CHEESE WINE GELATO In the Wailea Gateway Center, directly underneath MonkeyPod Restaurant

808-879-2433

SHOP 8am - 9pm

KITCHEN 8am - 7pm

INSPIRED IT ALL

VISIT OUR SHOPS ON MAUI ELEPHANT WALK

The Shops at Wailea 808-891-8684 Front Street, Lahaina 808-667-0361

SOUL LEI

Whalers Village 808-661-6663 808.667.0361

808 868 4014 | waterlilymaui.com

ALOHA MOMENT

Light, torch, lamp, enlightenment.

©HAINES WILKERSON

Lama.

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ESCAPE The experience of a lifetime, every time.

Reservations call 808.875.1234 ext. 4949

WWW.GRANDWAILEA.COM

•

@grandwailea

LOCATED AT GRAND WAILEA, A WALDORF ASTORIA RESORT 3850 WAILEA ALANUI, WAILEA, HI 96753