Parker Schools Honu (Patrick Ching & Students)
Patrick Ching’s Naturally Hawaiian Galleries presents:
Parker School Honu by Patrick Ching & the Students of Parker Lower School
To support: The Parker School Scholarship Program
According to Hawaiian legend, Kauila, a magical sea turtle who loved children, would turn herself into a girl so she could play with youngsters and keep them safe. Now, the children of Parker School are returning the favor.
Pencils, markers, and paintbrushes in hand, they crouched, lay, and kneeled below a life-size fiberglass sea turtle, decorating it in vibrant colors. Students from kindergarten through fifth-grade drew a seascape filled with coral, sharks, octopi, sea horses, monk seals, seaweed, and mermaids.
The 5-foot sculpture is part of what is being called the “greatest art exhibit in Big Island history”: the “It’s a Honu World” public art parade organized by Kinaole Group Ltd.
Artist and Parker School parent Patrick Ching, owner of Naturally Hawaiian Galleries, purchased the undecorated sculpture, then decided Parker Lower School students could help him paint it.
Ching painted the head and uppermost portion of the shell and flippers, his 7-year-old daughter Kawena painted the huge octopus in the middle of its shell, and the rest was painted by her schoolmates at Parker Lower School.
Stop by to see the sculpture at Parker School. It is one of several painted honu, created by various artists, comprising an “art parade” around Waimea and the Big Island. All the honu in the parade will be auctioned in September. Proceeds from the Parker School honu will go to the school’s scholarship fund.
Parker School third-graders Shelby Alligood, Bodi Glasscock, and Tristan Bohannan add their artistic vision to the honu sculpture at Parker School.
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