Talking Story

Starting new conversations in the workplace!

  • Rosa’s Books
  • ManagingWithAloha.com
  • RosaSay.com

Orange Paint

January 20, 2007 by Rosa Say

The New Year stretches before us with such exciting possibility; I love that thought of a blank canvas just waiting to be splattered with the colors of our latest adventures. A cliché metaphor you’ve heard before I’m sure, but one which recently came alive for me.

I was at a kani ‘ai ka pila (backyard or beach-style dinner with local music) at Kane‘ohe on O‘ahu, and a painter was part of the evening’s ‘ohana celebrating the event with us. He had a huge canvas (about 4’ x 6’) propped up next to a table with an assortment of painter’s palettes and brushes —to share. We were all invited to pick up a brush, dabble in any color we wished to, and add our own strokes to the canvas. He started our ‘ohana painting as the party began, with the palest grey stroked in swirls and fanciful airy patterns. It was beautiful just in its merest beginnings, with nothing but shades of grey, grey-blues, and grey-blacks on the cream-colored canvas, and as I watched him I was mesmerized by how much he could do with so little color. He’d often stop and invite us to join in, but no one wanted to spoil what he alone was creating.

The brave one who picked up the first brush went straight for the brightest color on a palette; a vibrant, rich orange. The brush she chose was wide and fat, and she smothered its bristles with the orange paint, using it more like spoon than brush.

When she walked up to the canvas there was no hesitation at all; she brandished that brush with a fierce determination, and I couldn’t help sucking in my breath in alarm imagining the damage she’d do to his very gentle, delicate beginnings. Sure enough, her playful orange ripple smeared over most of the 6’ length along the bottom of the frame, whether he had already painted there or not. It was easy to imagine her strokes as the burning orange licks of a flame, but she kept it at the canvas’s base. It was all she could reach; our brave leader was three years old.

The painter? He was delighted! He stepped back to watch her with the most victorious smile on his face, and he gleefully encouraged her to milk every drop of orange out of that brush.

Are you wondering how that canvas came out in our kani ‘ai ka pila? We tentative, far too inhibited adults eventually did pick up brushes and decide on the colors we would add to the canvas too. Truthfully, we became emboldened more by a beer or two versus the child-sure confidence our young leader displayed with her orange-bathed brush. A picture of our combined artistry did emerge, and today it hangs in the home of our hostess that evening, a beautiful reminder of what an ‘ohana can create when they choose to lend their aloha to creativity’s expression.


Hiki no;
can do! Choose your colors this year. Be brave and share your stories for future editions of my newsletter, for we’d all love to hear about them!


Ka lā hiki ola.
It is the dawning of a new day, and it’s your day. Make it your best one ever.


Me ke aloha, a hui hou,

Rosa

PostScript: The painter was the wonderful Solomon Enos, who illustrated Akua Hawai‘i.   You can see his art at his stunning website gallery.

Solomonenos
Solomon was brilliant in the way he gently painted a blending of all our contributions to that canvas. When the evening was over, his gentle blue-grey swirls had totally disappeared, covered with a newer, different, layered beauty. Still, those of us who participated in the making of the art, will always be able to still see them there when we visit our hostess’s home, “seeing it” with the knowledge they cradle all we added.

More about Solomon in an article by Honolulu Weekly:

Planet Enos;
The artist from Wai‘anae creates his own reality, painting and thinking his way to a better Hawai‘i

Performance art is like recess—“an opportunity to have fun”—in Enos’s syllabus of work. This evening he’s experimenting with animation. In three hours, he draws more than 150 frames. Every so often, he stops to evaluate his progress, makes a face and continues. With a click of the mouse, the abstract drawings come to life: a friendly, upside-down skull grows a tail and becomes an amoeba-like stingray that swells into a balloon and then shrinks to a navel orange.

Filed Under: MWA19: The 19 Values

Comments

  1. Steve Sherlock says

    January 22, 2007 at 8:00 am

    The little kid in me rose to the occasion just as in your story, she rose to paint her line.

Search Talking Story your way

RSS Current Articles at Managing with Aloha:

  • Self-Coaching Exercises in the Self-Leadership of Alaka‘i
  • Do it—Experiment!
  • Hō‘imi to Curate Your Life’s Experience
  • Kaʻana i kāu aloha: Share your Aloha
  • Managing Basics: The Good Receiver
  • What do executives do, anyway? They do values.
  • Managing Basics: On Finishing Well

Search Talking Story by Category

Talking Story Article Archives

  • July 2016 (1)
  • April 2012 (1)
  • March 2012 (6)
  • February 2012 (6)
  • January 2012 (10)
  • December 2011 (1)
  • November 2011 (4)
  • October 2011 (17)
  • September 2011 (8)
  • August 2011 (6)
  • July 2011 (2)
  • June 2011 (2)
  • May 2011 (4)
  • April 2011 (12)
  • March 2011 (16)
  • February 2011 (16)
  • January 2011 (23)
  • December 2010 (4)
  • November 2010 (1)
  • October 2010 (1)
  • September 2010 (4)
  • August 2010 (1)
  • July 2010 (4)
  • June 2010 (13)
  • May 2010 (17)
  • April 2010 (18)
  • March 2010 (13)
  • February 2010 (18)
  • January 2010 (16)
  • December 2009 (12)
  • November 2009 (15)
  • October 2009 (20)
  • September 2009 (20)
  • August 2009 (17)
  • July 2009 (16)
  • June 2009 (13)
  • May 2009 (3)
  • April 2009 (19)
  • March 2009 (18)
  • February 2009 (21)
  • January 2009 (26)
  • December 2008 (31)
  • November 2008 (19)
  • October 2008 (8)
  • September 2008 (11)
  • August 2008 (11)
  • July 2008 (10)
  • June 2008 (16)
  • May 2008 (1)
  • March 2008 (17)
  • February 2008 (24)
  • January 2008 (13)
  • December 2007 (10)
  • November 2007 (6)
  • July 2007 (27)
  • June 2007 (23)
  • May 2007 (13)
  • April 2007 (19)
  • March 2007 (17)
  • February 2007 (14)
  • January 2007 (15)
  • December 2006 (14)
  • November 2006 (16)
  • October 2006 (13)
  • September 2006 (29)
  • August 2006 (14)
  • July 2006 (19)
  • June 2006 (19)
  • May 2006 (12)
  • April 2006 (11)
  • March 2006 (14)
  • February 2006 (14)
  • January 2006 (7)
  • December 2005 (15)
  • November 2005 (27)
  • October 2005 (22)
  • September 2005 (38)
  • August 2005 (31)
  • July 2005 (34)
  • June 2005 (32)
  • May 2005 (27)
  • April 2005 (28)
  • March 2005 (36)
  • February 2005 (33)
  • January 2005 (35)
  • December 2004 (13)
  • November 2004 (24)
  • October 2004 (22)
  • September 2004 (28)
  • August 2004 (8)

Copyright © 2021 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in