Herb Kawainui Kāne

Kāne was born in Marshfield, Minnesota. His father, also named Herbert, worked in the family poi business, became a paniolo, and later traveled across the United States with a Hawaiian band. He also served in the Army, Navy and eventually worked as an optometrist (no academic qualification [OD] given). Kāne's grandfather immigrated to Waipio Valley from China and built the first poi factory in the Hawaiian Islands, where he cultivated taro and produced poi for the market. Kāne's mother's family were farmers of Danish ancestry in Wisconsin. Kāne spent his childhood moving between Wisconsin and Hawaiʻi. In his book, Voyagers, Kāne describes an early interest in art. In 1935, as a child in Hilo, Hawaii, his mother took him to an art gallery, which was exhibiting the work of D. Howard Hitchcock. Kāne wrote that he was "stunned, confronted with miracles" upon seeing Hitchcock's work. Hitchcock, the first Hawaiian-born artist to achieve international recognition, focused on Hawaiian subject matter, especially the volcanic eruptions near Hilo. In addition to this early exposure to art and his parents' encouragement, his most formative experiences in childhood were in Hawaiʻi, where his father and family passed down the traditional folk tales of the islands. Kāne later served in the United States Navy, qualifying for veterans' educational benefits under the G.I. Bill. After his discharge, he used these benefits to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor's degree and, in 1953, a master's degree. Under an arrangement between the two schools, his Master's degree was awarded by the University of Chicago. ==Early career==

Herb Kāne operated his own advertising studio on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. As a designer, illustrator, and author, he created advertisements for books, magazines, and television. However, Kāne found advertising work unsatisfying, noting that he grew tired of drawing the Jolly Green Giant, even after winning a campaign featuring the character. During Kāne's time while sailing his racing catamaran on Lake Michigan, he began researching Hawaiian canoes at the University of Chicago library and the Field Museum of Natural History. In 1961, the Field Museum publicly displayed one of the most extensive collections of Pacific Ocean artifacts at the time. In the 1960s, Kāne created a series of fourteen paintings depicting Polynesian canoes. In 1969, these paintings were purchased by the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, which was then headed by its first director, Alfred Preis, the architect of the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaiʻi. Kāne later stated that this purchase had enabled him to move to Hawaiʻi, where he lived in Honolulu and continued his study of Polynesian voyaging canoes. ==The Hōkūleʻa and its cultural impact==

In Honolulu, Kāne attracted a group of sailing enthusiasts, including University of Hawaiʻi anthropologist Ben Finney and Tommy Holmes, author of The Hawaiian Canoe. Together, they founded the Polynesian Voyaging Society and began working on the Hōkūleʻa, a voyaging canoe that was based on historical Polynesian design, capable of sailing between Hawaiʻi and Tahiti. Their purpose was to demonstrate that ancestral Polynesian voyagers could have navigated in vessels of a similar type to settle Hawaiʻi. Kāne said his goal was also to spur a revival of cultural identity among Hawaiians and peoples of the Pacific islands. "What intrigued me was to see, if by building this canoe and putting it to active use and taking it out on a cruise throughout the Hawaiian islands, introducing it to the Hawaiian people, training Hawaiians to sail it, if this would not stimulate shock waves or ripple effect throughout the culture- in music and dance and the crafts. And we know it did." Kāne designed and named the Hōkūleʻa, which was launched on March 8, 1975. a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. The name Hōkūleʻa came to Kāne in a dream, he said. Nainoa Thompson, navigator of the Hōkūleʻa, said Kāne was "the visionary, the dreamer, and he was the architect and the engineer. He's the one that carried the burden of building, constructing, and sailing Hōkūleʻa." Thompson also stated that Kāne's legacy is "transforming Hawaiʻi's society because he brought pride and culture and inspiration back through the canoe... He is the father of the Hawaiian Renaissance." Kāne died on March 8, 2011, the 36th anniversary of the launch of the Hōkūleʻa. ==Art works==

Daniel Inouye, United States Senator from Hawaiʻi, stated that Kāne's artwork "captured both ancient and modern-day Hawaiʻi and helped preserve Hawaiʻi's unique culture for future generations." Kāne's art depicts historical scenes, such as his series of voyaging canoe paintings and many other paintings of battles, everyday domestic life, and ceremonial occasions, which are extensively researched. When Kāne turned to old Hawaiian legends, alongside the Hawaiian culture's spirituality and mythology, his work became more expressionistic, with bold brushwork and vivid colors. Kāne's expressionistic style is seen in his painting Pele, Goddess of the Volcano. Standing on display at the Jaggar Museum at Kīlauea, it depicts the supernatural figure with fire in her eyes and flowing lava as her hair. Kāne's art was often heavily researched to ensure historical accuracy, including details such as weather and cloud coverage. He consulted with contacts in Washington, D.C., and around the globe to achieve accuracy in his research. Kāne also uncovered ship plans in the Maritime Museum in London, which he used for some of his paintings. He designed tapestries based on his paintings. Site-specific works Kāne's paintings include several large canvases or murals for hotel lobbies and similar public and commercial spaces. His 1973 mural, made of wool, titled Opening of the Pacific to Man, was designed for a space above the entrance to the Pacific Trade Center, on Alakea and King Streets in central Honolulu. It measures high and wide, and depicts voyaging canoes and a central male figure holding a paddle. In the corner of the mural is a representation of the wayfarer's chart, traditionally made of shells and sticks, in which islands and ocean swell patterns are encoded to assist the training of a navigator. As a design consultant, Kāne worked on resorts and visitor centers in Hawaiʻi and the South Pacific, as well as a cultural center in Fiji. Several of his large canvases are on permanent view at the Outrigger Hotel in Waikiki in Honolulu, where the management dedicated the area as a permanent tribute to Kāne. One 1973 site-specific mural, painted on a custom-designed wall as part of a history center under construction (and never completed) at Punaluu Beach, gained notoriety twice. The historical mural, titled Ancient Punaluu, Hawaiʻi Island, measured wide by high. According to a news report, "The mural shows alii, warriors and commoners on the black sandbar, which separates Punaluu Bay from a pond where springs provide fresh water immediately behind the beach... A ceiling of thatch gave the feeling of being inside an old Hawaiian shelter, and the thatch hid lighting, which gave a natural, daylight look to the mural. Pebbles and sand at the base of the painting met real pebbles and sand on the floor of the history center." In 1975, the mural survived a tsunami that destroyed the interior of the building. According to Kāne's account on his personal blog, quoting eyewitnesses, the wave pushed all the displays out the far side of the room and left a mud line three or four feet high on the wall—except on the mural, which was dry and undamaged. Then, in 2005, the mural was stolen from the site, which was vacant and unfinished. Thieves are believed to have cut out the wall in five sections using a circular saw powered by a portable generator, and in this way, stole the painting, which has never been recovered. On the day of its release, sales of this stamp set a new record for the U.S. Postal Service. Kāne's 2009 stamp for the State's 50th anniversary depicts a person surfing and people paddling a traditional outrigger canoe, all riding the same wave. This stamp engendered some controversy, as Kāne was critical of the typography in the final design, which he felt mistakenly substituted an apostrophe for the symbol that signals a glottal stop in the word Hawaiʻi and is known by the term okina. He also designed stamps for several Pacific island nations, including French Polynesia, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. ==Publications==

• Canoes of Polynesia (1974) (portfolio of 12 lithographs with accompanying booklet) • Voyage, the Discovery of Hawaiʻi (1976) • A Canoe Helps Hawaii Recapture Her Past in National Geographic Magazine (April, 1976) Kāne is an illustrator of: • The Life and Times of John Young: Confidant and Advisor to Kamehameha the Great • The Power of the Stone: A Hawaiian Ghost Story • Christmas Time with Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaiʻi (1977 album cover: Hawaii Sons HS-4004) • Voyagers, The First Hawaiians (film directed and scored by Paul Csige, based on the 1976 book Voyage, The Discovery of Hawaii by Herb Kāne) ==Honors==

:*1984—Named a Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Honolulu :*1987—One of 16 chosen as Pookela (Champion) for the Year of the Hawaiian Celebration :*1988–1992—A founding trustee of the Native Hawaiian Culture & Arts Program, Bishop Museum :*1998—Awarded Bishop Museum's Charles Reed Bishop Medal :*2002—Received an award for excellence from The Hawaiʻi Book Publishers Association :*2008—Awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago ==References==