Art - Queen Kaʻahumanu Center

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Visit the mural at Kahului’s Queen Kaʻahumanu Center

Ka Wahine o Kekoa

It is only when one has lived with another that one knows the meaning of love.

Aunty Kekoa Enomoto

In 2022, Fathima Mohiuddin painted the “Ka Wahine o Kekoa” mural at Queen Ka’ahumanu Center.

The mural is a project of the nonprofit Maui Public Art Corps.

Inspired by a Hui Mo‘olelo audio recording by between Aunty Kekoa Enomoto of ʻAhahui Kaʻahumanu and Queen Kaʻahumanu Center’s Kauwela Bisquera, the artist with nine community consultants developed a pair of workshops at Imua Immersion Preschool, Kahului campus to sharpen her initial idea into a communal work of art.

Maui’s tradition for generations, Queen Ka’ahumanu Center’s collaboration with Maui Art Corps, culminated the Center’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2022. We are thrilled to pay homage to our Center’s namesake through public art and further a community mo’olelo informed process rooted in place.

Listen to the talk-story audio recording that was interpreted as a mural at Kahului’s Queen Kaʻahumanu Center, unveiled in December 2022.

Excerpt
Full Recording

Fathima Mohiuddin | @fatspatrol

Fatspatrol (Fathima) is an Indian, UAE-born and raised, Canadian immigrant artist who splits her time between Toronto and Dubai. Her work embodies her third-culture identity in the sense that it is a hybrid medley of many influences and in the end a voice of her own. Addressing her own curiosity about the world, our place in it and other existential conundrums, Fatspatrol works heavily with symbolism and narrative to share her stories and learnings and find universal sentiments whilst. Passionate about art’s social impact, Fats’ work in recent years has made its way to public walls in 10 countries accompanied by a studio practice in drawing and painting and a number of brand-related commercial projects. Fathima graduated with a BA in Art & Culture from the University of Toronto and an MA in Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2010, she was awarded the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award and founded The Domino, an artist-run platform in Dubai.

Artist Statement

Everything with intention and purpose. Colours of mountains. Colours of jade. Colours of sand.
The love of legends and legends of love.
Naupaka.
Purple. Taro.
Kapa.
Tied by tradition. By a place between the mountains and the desert where the bones of ancestors lay buried. Where women fought alongside men.
Manono.
I read about Queens who fought for language. A butterfly in her hair.
Resilient and nurturing.
Nostalgic.
The paddler.
Intergenerational home making.
Warrior women.
Like flowers. Like mountains.

Wilton and Talia Leauanae

Wilton and Talia Leauanae, a father-daughter team of Maui artists, have painted murals together for local businesses and private residents over the last couple of years. This recent collaboration stemmed from the idea of earning extra college money for Talia using art when she returned home on her summer breaks.

Talia has always liked art and studied graphic design while playing volleyball for the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Wilton is a Maui artist who has exhibited in numerous juried shows in Hawaiʻi, primarily painting with oil and acrylic paints. The merging of the two art styles has been a fun collaboration, working on various mural projects in the community and other art projects in the mainland.

We have always loved visiting the Queen Kaʻahumanu Center, spending countless hours in the old playground area when Talia and her sisters were young and shopping at the stores. We are honored to paint a mural for a place weʻve come to love and that brings our families together.

The mural depicts Queen Kaʻahumanuʻs love for the beauty of Maui. The bright and vibrant colors were selected to draw the viewer in, inviting them to pause for a moment from their busy lives, take a picture with friends and family and appreciate the beautiful plants and flowers that the Queen loved and that are found here on Maui.