“Untitled (Hillside)” by Marie McDonald, 2013. Kapa – wauke with olena, alaea, kukui, or ukiuki dyes. Art in Public Places Collection of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Purchased from the “Mohala Hou Ke Kapa (Kapa Blossoms Anew)” exhibit at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, 2014. Listen to a Hawaiʻi Public Radio news piece about the exhibit: HawaiiPublicRadio.org/arts-culture/2014-03-04/mohala-hou-ke-kapa-kapa-blossoms-anew.
Marie McDonald (1926 – 2019) is well known and highly respected for her work with both lei and kapa. This work, informally known as Hillside, is a blend of the artist’s knowledge of traditional Hawaiian kapa-making methods and a Western approach to composition and design. The entire work employs techniques of making and decorating kapa via plant cultivation, cloth and dye production, and the application of dyes onto the cloth using tools. McDonald extracted the dyes from plants, such as ‘ōlena and ‘alaea, to make the colors yellow and red that represent the hillsides. However, what makes this work particularly unique and innovative is that she treats the kapa as a canvas on which she painted a contemporary abstract design, suggestive of a landscape. The artist explains, “You can take off on the design. You can take off and express yourself on the design process but not in the manufacturing process. That’s how I feel as an artist, as an educator.”
August 2024: on display in the State of Hawaiʻi Attorney General’s Criminal Justice Division, Tobacco Enforcement Unit.