STAYING THE COURSE

Objective:
To create an inspirational public art piece on the campus of Kealakehe High School in Kailua Kona. It is the hope of this projec to open dialogue with students about navigating successfully through the myriad of choices young adults will face during their high school experience while enforcing community values.

The Project:
Family, community and self will be the focus of the ceramic mural. Each student will make a honu and bird from clay which will be glazed and adhered permanently to an outside wall on the campus of Kealakehe High School. The ceramic bird and honu will be made from a template and the students will be asked to create a design on the honu that symbolizes and reflects the following concepts: the importance of family, their relation to community and their personal hopes and dreams. The bird template will focus on what the student can contruibute to the world, such as understanding, forgiveness and truth. The honu and bird templates will be assembled like a M.C. Escher tesselation, again reinforcing the idea of working together to create a harmonious and productive community while strengthing their own individuality.
The Honu is the symbol not only of longevity, but it is the ultimate navigator, that returns
to the sands of their birth. The project will open dialogue for the youth about how they
will make choices during their high school years. The honu they create will help them
focus and navigate their own personal journey. The public art piece will be a reminder to the student and other students on campus on how to stay the course through their high school career and beyond.
The Bird in flight will remind students to share and release their hopes and dreams for a strong community. The students were instructed to sculpt and paint messages of inspiration to share their with family, friends and community.The students and youth leadership chose inspirational words like peace, aloha, music, magic, pono and pride.

Sponsors and Participants: Family Support Services of West Hawaii is sponsoring the youth mural,
and students from Kealakehe Middle and High School are helping to make the ceramic pieces.

Special message to the students who participated in the project: Mahalo for all your time and creativity you
gave to this special public mural. I hope you have enjoyed being a part of this project, as I have enjoyed watching
the thoughtful art pieces you have made. My next visit will be to assemble tha ceramic project, and I look forward
to having you all help me put the pieces together.

Last updated January 2009