Life & Work with Nicole “Kapawa” Clarke of South Raleigh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole “Kapawa” Clarke.

Hi Nicole “Kapawa”, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Before I became a full time artist, I was pursuing an education in anthropology. As an undergrad, I received a grant from my honors program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville to travel to Maui on local perception of tourism. I lived for several years on the Big Island of Hawai’i, Moku o Keawe, during which I pursued my Masters in Heritage Management at UH Hilo. I learned to speak Hawaiian through private lessons and mentoring from Kumu Kaliko Beamer Trapp, a well respected member of the community. He served Hawaiian culture perpetuation in many ways, including in committees that add new words to the Hawaiian dictionary. Kaliko was also called on to perform live translations of Hawaiian language to English during legal proceedings. I became Kaliko’s volunteer teaching assistant for two semesters. During this time, I was gifted my Hawaiian name, Kapawa’alihilani from Kaliko and his wife Leiloke, who were instrumental in my relocation to Big Island. Kapawa’alihilani means the last moment of darkness before dawn breaks over the horizon. I introduced myself to the community with my new name. Receiving my name from the community is something that still humbles me. This is why I chose to use it in the name of my business, Art by Kapawa.
The methodology for my MA research included oral histories, participant observation, and talanoa, a Pacific concept that values the interviewee’s time and community duties. In talanoa, the researcher conducts their study during the context of the interviewee’s day and may assist them with their duties and responsibilities to be less intrusive. One conclusion of my research was that locals in the Big Island community are agentic actors (meaning they make a choice to act on their own behalf) in cultural sharing through tourism. Rather than be seen as victims, they choose to engage with visitors to their islands on their own terms, which reframes their experience and results in more sustainable tourism, awareness of local concerns, respect for heritage sites, and increased cross-cultural understanding. My MA thesis mentor told me that my paper doubled the existing documentation of Hawaiian lei making. Preservation is so important to these communities; I was incredibly humbled to be a part of it. I continue to cherish these experiences everyday. Serving the Hilo community will always be a highlight of my life. My theses are published in online databases under my maiden name, Nicole Schuler.
Though I was initially very home sick for Hilo, I was delighted to learn that there is a great Hawaiian cultural presence in North Carolina and the East Coast. Right away I was able to get involved into the welcoming community Ka Pu’uwai o Hawai’i NC, which hosts about a dozen events through the year, including Lei Day, and a massive lūʻau in September. Last year, it poured down rain at the lūʻau, and it felt just like Hilo. At a party at Kōmana Brewing in Cary, I was invited to join a few members in singing Hawai’i Aloha, a beloved song played after most events in Hawai’i, and Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī, the Hawaiian National Anthem. It was such a profound moment of reconnection and aloha.
This summer, my kāne and I visited the Big Island for two incredible weeks, during which I reconnected with cherished friends, and introduced my husband to them. I brought my pochade box (pictured in my personal photo) with me, so I was able to paint en plein air at sites including Māhukona, Kailua-Kona, Kapa’au and panoramic vistas of Mauna Kea, and Mauna Loa. It was wonderful talking to the locals, who sometimes had questions about my paintings, or my intentions at the sites. It was nice to be able to wala’au with them and talk story. This will always be one of the most meaningful moments of my life.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For much of my life, I have been one of a great many that thought of myself as not worthy or capable of pursuing art full time. My perception and understanding of “the artist” was skewed. I imagined them as imbued and invested with incomparable talent. I was in awe of “the artist” but I saw the vast gap between us that I perceived could not be closed. When I studied art in college, the best classes were always full. The ones I was able to take were instructive, but did not teach anything about how to actually be an artist as a career. No one, not even the art majors, kidded themselves on that reality.
In the last few years, I have started to unlearn that philosophy through the tutelage of the Milan Art Institute and the Mastery Program, an intensive study of the masters, business skills, finding your voice, and exploring oil, sketching, acrylics, and mixed media. Two years ago, took the risk. I quit my job at Podchaser, a flourishing start up that I had been working at for four years. My husband helped me build the most amazing studio in the upstairs bonus room of our home. I have a glorious 8 foot by 4 foot easel on which I can work on up to three paintings at a time. I excitedly enrolled in the Mastery Program, starting with Part One, Sketching and Oil Painting.
I was absolutely dreadful at sketching. It’s been 7 years since I invested any time in it. For each assignment, I had to take double, triple, or quadruple the time recommended to try to execute a sketch. It still looked like crap, skewed, unrecognizable to the source image. I cried. I threw things. I compared myself to the other students. And in anger and frustration, I started to draw the ugliest things and my darkest thoughts all over the paper in a frantic rage. I was bouncing on rock bottom. This was my one chance to learn, and prove myself. And I was failing.
My left brain had been honed to a deadly point over years of college, grad school, and thesis writing. My right brain had been fed scraps every month or so when I guiltily snuck a moment of painting in, but only after all my responsibilities had been attended. My brain was unbalanced, just like those guys who buff up their cores and arms, but forget to strengthen their legs. I perceived my failings through that logical, academic lens. Had my imagination died? I couldn’t think of still life studies as documenting the way light falls across objects, or how the objects interact, how we feel about them. They were just objects to be rendered completely and accurately. Or I wasn’t an artist. And it was time for me to stop kidding myself.
I stared for weeks at the easel, once such my hopeful place, now full of hideous drawings and angry inner thoughts. I pulled them down and crumpled them up. And no, getting them out of sight did not magically make me feel better. However, I did start to realize my worst fears had already been realized. Nothing I could make could possibly be as awful as what I had already done. I decided that I hated sketching. So I skipped those assignments.
I have always wanted to paint characters from stories, songs, and legend. I can paint animals well, but rendering people was on that pedestal that only “the artist” could touch. One week, the assignment was gesture drawings, which I have always greatly enjoyed because they can be quick, undetailed impressions of models. It was the one kind of sketching that I had made time for during grad school. This time, I didn’t skip the assignment. I really enjoyed it. I did a few timed studies of images and live poses. I wasn’t great at it, but I was somehow better at it than my class mates, and the timed nature of the assignment meant I didn’t have to spend hours trying to make it look perfect. Nothing was instantly solved, but I started to see that my perception of “talent” was mostly an illusion; skills can be earned. I was capable, and worthy of earning them.
I began dedicating a few hours once a week to practice sketching people while my husband and friends played Dungeons and Dragons. For the first time, I was drawing in front of people! They could see my failures. But they could also see the day when I finally sketched Ahsoka from Star Wars, and it didn’t suck. In fact, people wanted to see it. I began dedicating time as many nights as possible to sketch a few items before bed. My friends and family were encouraging and wanted to see whenever I made something good, bad, or ugly. I decided it was time to stop skipping those sketch assignments. But it was time for the final assessment: a challenging perspective drawing.
The final assignment kicked my butt, but I finished it! And then I could put that section of sketching behind me forever. I’m in the Mastery Program to find my voice, but it’s not going to be expressed through sketches. Charcoal and graphite are so dry and too specific. Brushes are better for giving impressions and suggesting forms. I’m still a work in progress, but I have learned that I can only compare my current work to my past work. If my skills have improved an iota today, then I can keep moving! I don’t have to be stuck. I’ve also gained confidence with painting in public with my pochade box, and posting my progress honestly on social media. Painting will always come more naturally to me than sketching, but I recognize sketching is a tool and and an exercise to hone my hand eye coordination.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The painting that I am most proud of is “Spectacle.” Clocking in at 24 x 36 inches, it was the largest painting I had ever done at that time (my current record is a 36 x 36 inch landscape commission of Pinnacle Mountain. I’ve attached it as well). “Spectacle” is a glittering homage to the Siamese Byzantine architecture of the Fabulous Fox Theater and the incredible performances it brought into my life. I created this piece for my Uncle Mike, who has been sick for many years, but still manages to support my art. He introduced me the Phantom of the Opera and Christine Daae. Uncle Mike also paid the tuition for my voice lessons during high school so that I could study under the legendary Carol Taylor. “Think of Me” has always been my ultimate audition song and one of my favorites to perform. Some people have asked me if this is a self portrait. No. But yes, in a way. I wanted “Spectacle” to envelope the viewer with that same awe and grandeur that I felt when I first experienced the Fox Theater. There are many, many layers to this mixed media piece. I started with a graphite sketch, which was sealed with gel gloss. Then I collaged 11 different types of textured papers using molding paste. Some of these formed the structures of the proscenium arch or the red roses that are visible through the curtain. I used several spray paints and acrylic paints to lay in the base layers. I used four different kinds of gold in this piece. Gold wax is the underlayer to main structure of the theater. The foreground on the right is set off using a more orange shade of gold paper collaged underneath. I also added tons of gold leaf to emulate the glamour of the Fox’s distinctive style. Then finished with oil paint and varnish. The color scheme is based on a triad of gold, red, and blue. So each area of the painting has significant contrast from the others, yet your eye is drawn to the woman in blue, Christine Daae. The curtains are painted only with transparent cool alizarin crimson. This allows a gem-like light to shine out from the white canvas beneath. Bright warm cadmium red is used only in Christine and her scarf. This warm oil paint has molecules that orient toward the eye, which I fully took advantage of in this piece.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My mom let me paint and draw on my bedroom walls. So I started decorating them to look like Egyptian columns. I also drew a giant phoenix in a tree on my wall inspired by one of the Narnia books. I had to grab a ladder to be able to draw the highest parts.

Pricing:

• Commissions pricing is available on my website
• Origianl art and prices are available on my website
• Etsy is where I sell prints or other items with my art printed on them (mugs, shirts, notebooks, bags, etc)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://artbykapawa.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art_by_kapawa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550931726849
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-clarke-93428bb8/
• Other: https://artbykapawa.etsy.com