August 26, 2025 • 65 mins
Step inside the mind and heart of Jana Ireijo, a celebrated muralist, painter, and public artist whose large-scale works transform walls into stories of resilience, community, and identity. In this intimate and introspective interview, Jana opens up about her creative process, the emotional layers behind her murals, and how she finds purpose through art that lives beyond the gallery. From her early inspirations to the challenges of creating in public spaces, Jana shares insights on creativity, self-expression, and the courage it takes to make art that speaks to others. Whether you’re an artist, creative thinker, or simply someone seeking inspiration, this episode invites you to reflect on how art connects us all — and how every wall can become a canvas for change.
🎧 Keywords: Jana Ireijo, muralist interview, street art, public art, creativity, artist story, creative journey, introspective podcast, art and purpose, creative inspiration, mural painting, women artists, art podcast, creative mindset.
Jana Ireijo is an Hawaii born muralist whose passion as a conservation artist is born out of a love of art that started at a very young age. Jana creates vanishing murals using charcoal gathered from areas recently affected by wildfires. This material, formed by the heat of the flames, carries the story of destruction and renewal that is intrinsic to the natural world. She says her art is a reflection of the transience and impermanence of life and nature. Born in Honolulu in 1968, Jana has spent most of her life in transit leaving the island for California, before attending grad school in New York, then as a divorced woman to Connecticut where she raised her family, and finally returning to Hawai’i in 2023, where she has come full circle. Jana is the eldest of three children; she has a younger sister and brother. Her parents Rona August, a realtor, father James Ireijo, and step-father Joel August (both attorneys) encouraged Jana as a child to explore the arts, taking her to museums and galleries, and ensuring she always had access to arts and crafts. It was her mother that recognized a natural talent and told Jana she would become an artist. When the time came to choice her career pathway, Jana was drawn to advertising and after graduating from H. P. Baldwin High School (Maui) in 1986, she headed for the University of Hawai’i at Manoa to earn a BFA in Graphic Design in1991. She then attended Pratt Institute, New York, where she earned an MFA Painting in 1999. Jana took ten years off from her art to raise a family before turning her hand to public murals and developing her own style. Now back in the islands as an empty nester, Jana has immersed herself in her passion for environmental issues, such as the ocean, deep sea mining, and helping her community. She is also working on her first book for children entitled Vanishing Moon.
Jana’s links:
https://janaireijo.co/
https://www.instagram.com/janaireijo
Some favorite female artists:
Gillian Jagger - sculptor - she was my thesis advisor at Pratt, and a huge influence in my practice. Maya Lin
Lita Albuquerque
Nina Bentley
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.
🎧 Keywords: Jana Ireijo, muralist interview, street art, public art, creativity, artist story, creative journey, introspective podcast, art and purpose, creative inspiration, mural painting, women artists, art podcast, creative mindset.
Jana Ireijo is an Hawaii born muralist whose passion as a conservation artist is born out of a love of art that started at a very young age. Jana creates vanishing murals using charcoal gathered from areas recently affected by wildfires. This material, formed by the heat of the flames, carries the story of destruction and renewal that is intrinsic to the natural world. She says her art is a reflection of the transience and impermanence of life and nature. Born in Honolulu in 1968, Jana has spent most of her life in transit leaving the island for California, before attending grad school in New York, then as a divorced woman to Connecticut where she raised her family, and finally returning to Hawai’i in 2023, where she has come full circle. Jana is the eldest of three children; she has a younger sister and brother. Her parents Rona August, a realtor, father James Ireijo, and step-father Joel August (both attorneys) encouraged Jana as a child to explore the arts, taking her to museums and galleries, and ensuring she always had access to arts and crafts. It was her mother that recognized a natural talent and told Jana she would become an artist. When the time came to choice her career pathway, Jana was drawn to advertising and after graduating from H. P. Baldwin High School (Maui) in 1986, she headed for the University of Hawai’i at Manoa to earn a BFA in Graphic Design in1991. She then attended Pratt Institute, New York, where she earned an MFA Painting in 1999. Jana took ten years off from her art to raise a family before turning her hand to public murals and developing her own style. Now back in the islands as an empty nester, Jana has immersed herself in her passion for environmental issues, such as the ocean, deep sea mining, and helping her community. She is also working on her first book for children entitled Vanishing Moon.
Jana’s links:
https://janaireijo.co/
https://www.instagram.com/janaireijo
Some favorite female artists:
Gillian Jagger - sculptor - she was my thesis advisor at Pratt, and a huge influence in my practice. Maya Lin
Lita Albuquerque
Nina Bentley
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Johnny Ragel and I'm a buraalist.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Art, the podcast where we get
to know women from around the world of visual arts.
I'm Chris Stafford and this is season three, episode seventeen.
My guest this week is the Hawaiian born muralist Jana Horajo,
(00:27):
whose passion as a conservation artist is born out of
a love of art that started at a very young age.
Jana creates vanishing murals using charcoal gathered from areas recently
affected by wildfires. This material, formed by the heat of
the flames, carries the story of destruction and renewal that
(00:49):
is intrinsic to the natural world. She says her art
is a reflection of the transience and impermanence of life
and nature. In Honolulu in nineteen sixty eight, Jana has
spent most of her life in transit, leaving the island
for California before attending grad school in New York, then,
(01:10):
as a divorced woman, to Connecticut, where she raised her family,
and finally returning to Hawaii in twenty twenty three, where
she has come full circle. Jana is the eldest of
three children. She has a younger sister and brother. Her
parents Rona August, a realtor, father James Arasio and stepfather
(01:32):
Joel August, both attorneys. They encouraged her as a child
to explore the arts, taking her to museums and galleries
and ensuring she always had access to arts and crafts.
It was her mother that recognized a natural talent and
told Jana she would become an artist. When the time
(01:54):
came to choose her career path, Janah was drawn to advertising,
and after graduate waiting from H. P. Baldwin High School
in Maori in nineteen eighty six, she headed for the
University of Hawaii at Manoa to earn a BFA in
graphic design in nineteen ninety one. She then attended the
(02:15):
Pratt Institute in New York, where she earned an MFA
in painting in nineteen ninety nine. Jana then took ten
years off from her art to raise a family, before
turning her hand to public murals and developing her own style.
Now back in the Islands as an empty nester, Jana
has immersed herself in her passion for environmental issues such
(02:38):
as the ocean, deep sea mining and helping her community.
She is also working on her first book for children
entitled Vanishing Moon. Jana, Welcome to the podcast. Thank you
so much for joining me all the way from Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm really
excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, set the scene for it. What does it look
like from your studio?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I have an amazing view. I can see the mountains
and towards the sea, so it can tell summer. It's
a little overcast, and I can see the clouds that
will clear to probably a bright, blue sunny day in Hawaii.
So I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
So you have very good light then in your studio, Yes,
but I actually it's so hot.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I keep the windows closed, but it's a yeah, it's
really it's bright all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You're now settled for the last two years near Diamond
Head for those who are familiar with Hawaii. But you've
been such a traveler, Johanna, I don't know where to
begin with your journey. Where would you begin at the
beginning where you were born and how you've circled back
to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, I've moved over forty something times, not necessarily state
to state or country to country, but in different homes
and for no one reason I was born in Honolulu.
My first family house was a Nonocluly. My dad was
(04:16):
a teacher, and then we moved to California. My dad
went to law school. We spent you know a few
years in California, and you know, throughout the years, I've
moved for various family reasons. I was in Maui for
(04:36):
a large part of my life, went to college back
in Honolulu, got married, and just moved a lot for
my ex husband's work or school, and we settled in
Connecticut for about twelve years. And once my kids grew
(04:57):
up off you know, graduated and went off to college,
I moved back home to Honolulu. So yeah, it's been
a long journey and really happy to be back home. Though.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Was it kind of inevitable that your journey would circle
back to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I think when I moved away, initially I moved to
after graduate school. After undergraduate school, moved to New York,
and I think I might have thought that was the
one way ticket to New York City. I always wanted
to go to school there and live there. I've been
(05:38):
so happy in every state, every town I lived in,
so every time I moved, I thought, this is it.
I'm going to make the most of it, kind of
settle into community. And I never thought I would move
so forty something times later, I knew that was a
(06:00):
big decision. I could stay in Connecticut or come back
home to the Islands where my family was, where my
parents were, and really become invested in the community. And
I've all so yes, yes, I think, deep down, yes,
it was inevitable that I would come back home.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Your heart is there and your soul.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, yeah, and feeling even before the wildfires in Maui,
I knew that a lot of people were moving away,
and I wanted to be a part of returning to Maui,
even though I'm not there right now, and just be
a part of the future.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Has it inspired your art more to be back in
Hawaii Do you think that has changed over the years.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
It's inspired my art more now because there's a real
sense of community in Hawaii. It's so small all that
you know, you run into different people that have played
many roles in your life, so everyone knows each other,
either they're related or what to school or work with
or so what's inspiring to me is that if there's
(07:16):
an issue in the community, we all feel it and
I love the way the community comes together to work
on these larger issues or goals, whether it's something traumatic
like the wildfires, or working towards something you know, positive,
(07:37):
we all kind of get involved, and that's really been
inspiring to me, showing what can be done regardless of
like political parties or views, because we're just kind of
used to working together and putting inside personal differences.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Tell us what it was like growing up in Hawaii, Janna.
You were born in nineteen sixty eight in Honolu, as
you said, and you have a sister and a brother.
Where do you fall chronologically? I'm the oldest, and how
did that represent itself when you were younger? Did you
feel like you were much the oldest and there were
(08:14):
expectations of you that might have been different for your siblings. Yeah,
I think like.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
A typical oldest child, I probably took one a lot,
and you know, probably thought I was right all the
time and that.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
The younger one should listen to me.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I growing up here, and I was also the oldest
of a bunch of cousins, so you know, we on
the summers and weekends, we just went to grandma's house,
and both grandma's houses and we were just it just
felt like we were let loose wild.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I mean we I remember growing up.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
With my cousins and just like a pack would go
into the stream and try to boats and catch the
bus to the beach and go to the library and
roam around. And I think it was only moving away
that I realized how much we were connected to nature.
(09:16):
And my dad would take us to the beach every weekend,
different beaches around the island, so all of us would
be piled into his little car, and you know, we
just kind of grew up really comfortable in the water,
you know, fighting and playing, and I did feel like
I was responsible for, you know, all my younger cousins.
(09:40):
But at the same time it was I think growing
up in Hawaii, you just really don't realize how much
nature is a part of And as I got older
in high school, we would go to the beach and
then go to the stream, and you know, there were
no fun and I think we were always in nature,
(10:06):
looking for our friends, listening to music. And now when
I move back, I look at it new eyes, like
how I would never go into the stream.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
You know, it's probably dirty or.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So I think that the health of nature became something
I don't take it for granted.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Does this mean you were a great swimmer and surfer.
It all seems that that is like a second nature
to any Hawaiian, that you're going to be natural in
water and do all those water sports. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I grew up really comfortable in the water because my dad,
who was a surfer, made sure that we could float.
He would say, you have to be able to float
for an hour just in case you get, you know,
washed up to the deep. And so it kind of
teach us to float on our back, and they do
this dead man's float, and there's a saying that we
(11:03):
all grew up with, never turn your back to the ocean.
So we grew up respecting the water. But it's not
that common for, unfortunately, for a lot of people to
learn how to swim. My dad happened to learn to
swim because he was a surfer. His parents moved to
Waikiki when he was young. But most, I would say,
(11:24):
a lot of people don't know how to swim, which
is really awful considering we're on an island, and I
think surfing is one of the I mean, drowning is
one of the leading causes of death for kids in Hawaii.
So that's something I'm really passionate about to you know,
(11:44):
the fact that we all should learn to swim because
we were on an island, but I'm very comfortable in
the water. I and then, but it was on Connecticut
where actually learned to open water swim and swim competitively
in triathlons. And I think when you do grow up
(12:04):
in the water or the streams or hikien, you do
tend to feel more protective of the environment. So that's
another reason why I'm super inspired to be back in Hawaii,
feeling that I can create art to highlight different issues
of the beaches and the streams that I really love.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Are you still a triathlete?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
No? And I started running when I was in my forties.
I accidentally joined a troth lung gym in Connecticut and
I said, I'm going to learn to swim. So I
did that and at that point about us we'll start cycling.
And that was something that really first brought my mind,
(12:55):
brought the awareness of how a stream can be cleaned
up or a river. We because I did the New
York City Triathlon and the swim was in the Hudson River,
and also like, oh, that doesn't seem so clean. But
then there was this whole they were really celebrating the
fact that the Hudson River had been cleaned after all
(13:17):
these years of being really polluted, and that was really well.
I was like, wow, we can swim in here. They
can really you can really improve the environment. So that was, uh,
that was very eye opening.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Were you age grouped in triathlon?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yes, yeah, I was in the forties, forty forty fives. Yeah,
I still I still run.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I don't know bikers swim anymore. So would you say
you're very competitive? Yes, I like that.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I guess traathlon's you're all You're always are racing in
your age group, and it wouldn't be fun if I
was just swimming, cycling or running without that. But I
also know that I've just driven to if I choose
a hobby or have a goal, I'm just really driven
(14:12):
to be the best that I can, and I really
love when everyone around me is doing the same. I
also think that, you know, there's uh so I'm competitive
mostly with myself, but I enjoy the competitive nature of
you know, sports for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So was that evident then when you were a child,
aside from the water. Sports. Were you very sporty in school?
Not at all?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
In fact, I was really shy. I would say all
my friends in high school, anyone who had known me before,
would have the last person to start running or be
on any like. I'd never been on a team. I mean,
I was a cheerleader, but I had never I was
the person who has picked for sports. I was really shy.
(15:02):
I was always reading. I grew up dancing, so maybe
that's was the most competitive, but we weren't leaving. I
did like performing, but no, like not. I was never athletic,
but you know, running you can kind of the more
you do it to get better. And being in that
tarathlon Jim with the great coaches, I think, whatever you do,
(15:27):
you could find a great coach too, you know, become
good at it. And yeah, so I credited all to
the great the great coaches I had.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, you competitive with your siblings, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I think as an oldest child, maybe you know, besides
the part about feeling I know better, I my sister
and my brother and I all recognized that my mother
did a really good job of kind of celebrating all
our differences and not creating an environment of competition with them.
(16:07):
Is that I think we all really appreciate, we're very
supportive of each other.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Arts, of course, is a very singular occupation, but it
sounds as if it was something that you felt comfortable
with from a very early age and you're always encouraged
by your family to participate. Do you know where that
came from? What the initial interest was in arts as
(16:35):
a child? Some of my.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
First memories are of me drawing in front of a window,
just looking out the window and drawing the field that
was outside. So I think my mom must have seen
that at a really young age, like two three four
years old. I think she must have seen me some
(17:03):
creative streak enough to buy me like these really expensive
colored pencils and put me into art classes. So I
think she must have seen that I really liked it
at that young age, and yeah, it just always felt
like an escape, like a yeah, and I remember being
(17:29):
pretty young when I started.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
What sort of age would you have been.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
When we lived in the house where I can see
that window, I would have been. And my babysitter at
that time said that my mom had always said John
is going to be a painter, specifically a painter. I
would have been like four and five, And.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It was a long time, was it before you realized
that your mother spoke some very true words, that that
was what you were destined to be?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, I I you know, I took my first I
liked to draw and at some point, but we didn't
have a lot of art classes in public school back then.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
She always put me into art class. I loved dancing,
and when I had to choose a major in undergraduate school,
I had this vague idea I was going to go
into advertising, and I chose graphic design. But it wasn't
until I took my first painting class. And she would
(18:32):
always say, I think you're going to be a painter,
and I was like, no, it's messy the art room.
There's weird people and it's just not It's just like
just messy and weird people in the paint and I
I think. I had to take a painting class in
graphic in the graphic design program, and I took acrylics
(18:54):
and that was okay, but it was the day I
took oil painting, and I can just remember it just
came over me. At this point, I'm in my early
twenties and I said, this is it. I knew I
could make oil paint do whatever I wanted it to do,
and I can remember the smell and the way it felt,
(19:15):
and you know, it took over twenty years, but my
mom was right, like, I don't know how she knew
painting specifically, but it was really true.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
What kind of things were you painting back then, Johanna?
What was inspiring you my teachers?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I had a really amazing undergraduate foundation experience at University
of Hawaii, and it was pretty formal. We had very
old school like drafting and figure drawing and all the fundamentals.
And so once we got past that, I had a
really good figure painting teacher, we got higher in the
(20:02):
program and we're more free to draw what we wanted.
The teachers were inspired by that kind of California, like
Deep and Corn Gosh, the artist who does the the
Slice of Cake. So I would say it's a very
California inspired abstract expressionism that I really loved that, But
(20:31):
you know, it was oil painting. And we had a
great studio with a lot of room and places to
store large paintings. I remember thinking, I'm going to do
really large paintings, so no one knows that I'm short
and a female. Like I had this like just gonna
do these really big, large scale paintings. But when I
(20:53):
once I moved to graduate school in New York and
we had to work really small and inclosed environments, I
started doing small acrylics, and that actually has stayed for
quite a while. Like it was really dependent on the
type of studio had dictated a lot of the work
I did.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But then you went big because now, as a muralist,
your paintings must be really quite large, are they? What's
the largest youb ever done for a mural. I did
a sixty foot wide mural. It was six feet tall,
so I remember thinking, wow, that's really big. But I'm
quite comfortable doing six foot tall murals, so I just
(21:32):
kind of thought of it as ten, you know, a
little painting smaller paintings. Yeah, I mean, I haven't done
the huge, huge ones on the sides of buildings, but yeah,
I'm comfortable creating bigger works. When I was in Connecticut,
(21:53):
I started, I took a wall in my garage and
I had been doing this oil paintings, and often a
painting can take a year or a couple of years,
for me to finish in oil painting. At some point
I just got why I really want to do something
that's more ephemeral, and I started in twenty fifteen about
(22:14):
then started creating these murals on my wall that I
would paint and then paint over, paint and paint over
and start again. So it's this really idea of letting
go painting large, not having an attachment to it, and
that really led to a lot of the work I
do today too. When you say not have an attachment
to it, how does that feel to detach yourself when
(22:38):
you're putting so much of yourself into it.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I think for those early garage wall murals, and I
love that. My son at that time, he was maybe ten,
he's he called it my forever wall. Even though I
was painting and washing away, painting, painting and painting over,
I remember thinking it was like a lesson in.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Not being attached.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And part of it is I've moved so many times.
I do recognize that, constantly moving, always being the new
girl and saying goodbye and saying hello again, saying goodbye,
and just you know, the painting over it was just
(23:28):
a reinforcement of yes, you know you have to get
used to loss and saying goodbye and starting over, and
that practice can be something. I had this vague idea
that if I could practice letting go, I would be
able to take more risks in my art practice. I
(23:53):
don't know if I really associated with my life, but
I remember thinking, if I can just you know, I'll
paint whatever I want because no one's going to see
this wall, I can take more of a risk and
maybe surprises will happen.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Was out then a vehicle for you to transition through
all the changes that you've made in life, you know,
she said, the goodbyees, the helloes, the casting off, starting
a new Do you feel that art is an important
part of that journey for you to adjust each time
(24:29):
with an outlet of painting very large forms too.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah, it definitely was, if I look back now, a
way to cope then escape, you know, dancing, performing to
like having that, you know, putting on a character. And
it's something I never would have thought when I was
(24:56):
starting out in art school that.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It would be.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
This way of getting through expressing my life. I just
did not see that. I was really aware of art movements,
and you know, the artists that came before me and
you know, in my twenties, so that would have been
like the nineties, I would have thought, I'm creating art
in this as a response to or referring to, like
(25:27):
abstract expressionism or you know, this kind of formal you know,
I was very aware of what was happening in biennials
and the art shows in New York, and I was
reading all the art magazines, so I thought I was
kind of involved in that art world conversation or but
and I think I would have thought talking about my
(25:48):
own and also in the nineties in New York, like
portrait art was not really in style at all or figurative.
So but the older I get, yeah, sure, I could
see that it was I was expressing these stories and
these happenings that were going on in my life, and
(26:09):
I knew the art was more powerful for it, even
though I wasn't really recognized.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
As an artist really ever.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I just kind of working them in my in my
house and you know, maybe showing a little bit at
local shows, but I was mostly raising my kids and
it wasn't until recently that and I just I just
remember very focused, I need to express these problems or
these stories. I set out to express, but I didn't really. Yeah,
(26:44):
it's just amazing how that those persons, that personal way
of looking at art also applies to a more community.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Focused too. How do you feel about letting go? Then?
When you finished peace.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I now see it as so I create murals that
are using non permanent earth pigments, and I started out
by leaving them outside in the brain, and sometimes I
wash them away and.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I feel it looks like.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Tears are falling when when I'm washing them away, and
it just really feels like a cathartic experience, something to
help me.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Adjust to change.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Often there for personal stories like my son's, you know,
my first son going to college, and without knowing, I
create these paintings of these endangered species, these animals, but
they directly affect to, I mean relate to like my
(27:59):
son and my younger son when he went off. And
I think I realize looking back that these art works
were related to something that's happening happening to my personal life.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And you know, I.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Feel really sad when I'm creating the art, and then
by the time I washed away, it feels like it
just helped me through that process. But you know, there's
still that ghost image that remains, and that it's something
very comforting to see, like things change, but you know,
the memories are so strong and I'm usually really grateful
(28:37):
for everything that I've experienced.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
How soon can you start a new piece? Then once
you've finished another?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
For these spanishy murals, it takes me a while to
start up again.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Like I have a.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Whale behind me on the studio wall that I think
I washed away and might have been February or March
so and it's still there. Like I so it's been
a few months. I will probably think about, you know,
drawing a new one over it if there's a deadline,
(29:12):
and if I'm working with another group, like a conservation group,
I can start again, you know, that's it's a new project.
But to do it on the same wall, there is space,
like a time to think about it in a process.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
What that experience went through. And as we said earlier,
your parents were very encouraging you off your art and
took you to exhibitions, to museums, and so you had
early exposure to other artists who were you noticing very
early on in your childhood who was inspiring you.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh gosh, I my mom said that she used to
take us to a museum in California and there she
always talks about me Sta in front of a painting,
just staring at again, I would have been like five
ish six of there's a paint, a famous painting. Enough
(30:10):
is it John the Baptist? Where's head is on a
severed head on a platter? I don't know, there's some
religious painting of this guy with a severed head and
a platter. And I remember being eighteen and going to
the Museum of Modern Art and seeing works like Christina's
(30:31):
World and The Boating Party. So I just remember seeing
paintings that seemed very melancholy in Edward Hopper in the
storytelling aspect of it, and then also looking at Impressionists
art really closely and saying, oh, there's they can make
(30:52):
a glass just by using these really quick gestural brushstrokes.
And then when I was in graduate school, I was
really focused on Northern Renaissance art. So I really like
that kind of paintings where every subject matter, the pigments,
(31:16):
we're all telling a story.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Are you a collector?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I try not to be, because I've most so many
times that it's just a real hassle moving. I would
have said books, but over the years I have had
to give up a lot of books. I try not
to be but I still have a clutter of things
I buy. I like, I love Hello Kitty things, but
(31:43):
I try not to buy them.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I'm wondering if you collect from your own heritage, your
own family heritage. So I want to talk about that
a little bit, Johnna, because you have a very interesting
family heritage, and your grandmother the yakina and got grandmother
practiced at kabana, which is a Japanese floral arrangement there,
so you had some introduction to things that were part
(32:09):
of your heritage. Talk a little bit about that if
you would.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, my grandmother she did a kibana. I remember her
dancing like Japanese dance and listening to Okinawan music. And
her father, I remember he always had a camera. I
think it was the music, and you know, watching my
grandmother and my grandfather watched Japanese TV every night after dinner.
(32:38):
That I can hear that in the background, but it
seems like it was kind of in the background, not
really something I knew about. Both of my grandparents didn't
really speak Japanese or Chinese to the kids at all.
It was something they spoke with their friends or you know,
(33:00):
it's always English. And I think it's now that I've
come back to Hawaii, definitely more interested in the Okinawa
Club and you know, the Chinese, you know, the rituals
and the culture and being in Hawaii and all that
is so definitely more interested now than I was back then.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Is that on your mother's side Japanese.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah, my dad's side is Okino and yeah, Japanese and
my mom's side there's a mix, mainly Chinese, so.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
It's a very interesting oriental mix. Then. I I'd imagine
that would have been also a source of inspiration artistically
for you given those very different cultures, but so much
art heritage there.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, and I think a lot of people don't realize
how different, you know, Japanese Chinese is. You know, let alone,
my stepfather's Jewish and my my birth father's really into
like Hawaii Hawaiian culture.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
You know, again, at University of Hawaii, the art history
professors were you know, we're in the East West, in
the middle of Pacific, so a lot of the professors,
you know, I had amazing Asian art classes and looking back,
even in high school, like my chemistry teacher, and just
(34:29):
in that general that those Buddhist principles were kind of
always around that idea of things change, seasons change, and
I don't know if that that was just a cultural things.
I don't think, you know, I was ever taught that
it was just kind of something that was always kind
of hovering over our lives.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Did your parents encourage you to get to know your
family heritage or is this something you inferred just now
that you're more interested in it now than maybe you
were when you were younger and have a new appreciation
for it. Yeah, I don't think my.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
You know, my grandparents they yeah, it was never something
really spoken about, but I yeah, not even in the
food like my mom she cooks like Italian Mediterranean. I
think again, being away from Hawaii and then seeing you know,
(35:41):
there was a lot of pride. The more questions I
asked about, you know what, learning about the Japanese being interred,
the Japanese Deternament camps. I had written a paper in
intermediate school about the camps and and my stepfather was
(36:04):
the attorney for this legal battle between whole lobby this
Hawaiian island against the US Navy. And I think the
more questions I asked about those big moments in history,
I started being aware how much pride there was and
(36:26):
also how humble. And you know, in Hawaii, a lot
of people don't speak about their work to put themselves
in a to shine a light on the work, because
generally it's felt like you're part of a group and
that no one kind of is like looking for the
(36:48):
attention for the work that they do. So I think
my generation is also aware of that, and it's starting
to ask more questions and document or share the stories,
knowing how humble and modest and you know the story
everyone is.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
So can you speak Japanese or Chinese? No, it's so terrible.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
I was.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I never had to learn a language. I was in
this gap year because now everyone has to learn a language.
I think I took Japanese for one year in high school,
but it's no, I can't and I wish I could.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Just going back to when you were choosing school, you
mentioned earlier that you did have your site set on advertising,
and you chose graphic design at the University of fiim
Man Noah and got your BFA there, graduating in nineteen
ninety one, and then you went to institute to the painting,
so by then you had decided that was your course.
(37:54):
The one drew you initially to take that passway. You know,
when we have to make that decision what school we're
going to go to and what we're going to study
when you were in high school and what was the
pivotal point where you made that decision? Oh gosh, that.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, that is a big jump, especially coming from MAUI
I don't think I knew anyone in graphic design, or
I must have been taking art classes at local art
schools outside of high school. Yeah, it's probably I didn't
(38:38):
know what else to do, Like I knew I was
better at art than other things, Like it certainly wasn't math.
I really wanted to be an MTV dancer if you
had asked me. I wanted to do dance and music videos,
but I knew I wasn't good enough for that, So
I must have chosen liberal arts. And you know, graphic
design sounds like the way there you can get you
(39:02):
can there's a career in art in going that route, and.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
It was very trendy, wasn't it back then? To grafic design.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Probably yeah, yeah, probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks for saying that,
because I'm trying to make that connection.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Why did I choose that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, and I was, you know, I was so happy.
You know, I took like typography, we drew the letters,
you know, I could make my own stretcher bars, I
could stretch my own chemases. Computers had just come to
h but I learned dark room, photography, ceramics like it
(39:40):
was really well rounded by hand courses of study, which
are pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Well kind of teenager? Were you, John? Are you patient?
I would say so. I you mentioned that you were shy. Yeah,
so I'm wondering if you were the shy girl that
sat in the corner with a book, or you know,
if you did venture out to partisan you know, the
(40:11):
normal college life.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I you know, once I moved
we moved to Maui from Honolulu, you know, and after
so many years of always being the new girl, we
moved to Maui and all of a sudden, I'm from
the big city of Honolulu, so I had more friends
and you know, my social life really started moving to Maui.
I had friends, people are very kind, and you know,
(40:36):
I had people too. Yeah, I started going out. I
was a cheerleader. We you know, went to football games,
and I was performing, So I would say I was
still very naturally shy, but you know, extroverted too. And
even now, let's say there's those different in that di
(40:58):
economy of being very happy.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Alone working in the studio.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
But you know, I love the performing and I do
have close friends, so yeah, it's it's I guess it's extremes.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
But your mother, quite different, must have been extrovert, she
rona August. She was a real uh huh so a
different personality. Yeah, yeah, yeah, how is your relationship with her?
Speaker 1 (41:27):
You know it? She it's all surprising how much she
knows again, like how she knew I would be an artist.
Like when you say your mother knows this, like it's
infuriating sometimes, but she really does it.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Like she she she knows.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I mean she's yeah, very intuitively, she knows when you're
in trouble or and I think she is the very
creative one. Actually think she's you know, she never followed
an art practice, but she's very creative. And I actually
(42:10):
think very athletic too, So I think, you know, we're
a lot alike, and as the years go by, I
see that more and more.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Would you be more extrovert than you? Though? When I
saw that she was a realtor, I thought perhaps she'd
be more extrovert than you were.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, yeah, definitely more. I never thought about that too,
like you know, someone who's realture, because that's something I
would never do again. You'd have to talk to people
like out of the blue. Yeah, yeah, for sure, Like
we're actually not alike at all, but but I guess Yeah,
(42:48):
she's very in tune too, but always been so supportive
of who I am, even though I'm so different from her,
which thanks for saying that, because and I really appreciate
how her Yeah, being that way.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
And then of course graduating as you did in nineteen
ninety nine and very well educated and definitely veering towards
a career in the arts. What was the next step
for you? Did you find work right out of school?
Speaker 3 (43:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (43:25):
I was married then, and pretty soon after I had
my first son. It was after nine to eleven, and
I remember that kind of just shifted everything, Like, you know,
I was going to have kids anyway, but I remember
that really affected me, and you know, I had kids,
(43:45):
I still was able to paint. But there was a
ten year gap in my resume from like two thousand
and two to twenty twelve, just raising kids that I
remember thinking, wow, I've really done nothing in ten years
art wise, But yeah, so I did. And back then
(44:10):
it was before the internet. I don't have art world connections.
I never worked in the arts so and I was
moving a lot. So I'll do you know, shows in
the city I've lived in, But I was mostly raising
kids during those years, the early years.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
That's Noah who's just graduated college, and Kai who's a
sophomore in college. Two boys. So are they at all
interested in art and what you do? They're very creative
with my art projects.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
I'll often ask them, you know, what's the best way
to tell this story, especially if it's an environmental issue.
They're amazing artists. Every year, on my birthday or Christmas
or a holiday date, they'll draw in this book of
this big drawing book I have since they'll draw me
a picture.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
But they don't.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
They're not pursuing our careers. But I can see that
they are very creative, and yeah, you know, I have
hope that they'll take it up as hobbies. But as
if yet not not yet.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
At what point then, when you started to take your
very seriously did you realize that you could actually make
a living out of this, that you were selling enough
work to be sustaining a few years before.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
My kids were going off to college, so you know,
the last years in Connecticut, I started realizing, Okay, what
am I going to do once they're gone? And I
had been selling, you know, paintings, thinking about being a teacher.
And it wasn't until I did my first mural it
(46:06):
was it was public art, thinking I could do this.
I knew I could tell the stories. Public art became
very important to me during the pandemic and realizing and
before that, you know, I was doing work in you know,
i'd have a show in a gallery and you know,
maybe two hundred people would come and see it. I
(46:28):
would sell a couple of paintings, but I remember thinking,
you know, more people need to see art, and if
it's out in the public, more people see it. So
I got like a commission for a bus shelter, and
then you know, did a commit job with the Nature
Conservancy and I started thinking, yeah, well I could really
(46:49):
make a living off this and be really excited about this.
Direction in my practice.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
So why did you choose vanishing Murals? And that caused
the name of your website, which we'll put a link to.
How did you arrive there?
Speaker 1 (47:07):
I was in like twenty very late twenty nineteen. I
was in Connecticut dating someone in Australia and they had
in December twenty nineteen January twenty twenty these megafires that
just went through Australia, and I was in Connecticut just
(47:32):
watching it on the news, just you know, seeing the fires,
seeing people running towards the beach, and I just remember
just being just devastated and almost frozen in fear. And I,
you know, after days of watching some of the news,
(47:52):
I learned that the koalas couldn't run from the fires,
and that just triggered all emotions get broke open and
I and then COVID happened right after, and I just
I remember thinking to myself, the Earth is screaming. I
didn't have any words for climate change, that was not
(48:13):
on my radar. I just remember thinking that Earth is screaming,
and I drew I was drawing this small koala just
like a way of cope and process again. And then
I remember thinking, you know, not that it's the end
of the world, but it felt like it was the
end of the world. And I said, what am I
(48:34):
doing with art? It doesn't mean anything, It has no meaning.
It just makes no sense. And I remember thinking, I
want to make an artwork that can't be sold or
bought and that expresses this loss that I feel. And
for the first time in my practice, I started thinking, Okay,
not only do I feel this, but I know everyone
(48:55):
is feeling this way, and if not, you know, maybe
they're worse off than me. I just remember, think the
whole world is going through this like change and loss
and fear, but at the same time hope. And I
just thought about it for a few days and I
and again I thought a mural had been doing these
murals in my garage, but the idea of paint seemed
(49:17):
so plastic and not just couldn't express. And then I remember,
back in the day, when I was younger, we used
to have these brush fires on Maui.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
You know, I'd pick up the charcoal and draw on
the rocks.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
And I one day I just thought of this, drawing
this large koala using charcoal from the wildfires. So the
guy I was dating at the time had sent me
charcoal from the wildfires in Australia and I conceived this
Kuala mural that when the rain came it would wash
(49:50):
away and look like tears are falling. And I remember
thinking I would call it vanishing Koala. So for the
next two years in quarantine, I just drew these murals
all over my house, like outside in the wall, in
my garage, you know, in my and I would say vanishing,
you know, whatever the species was. So it felt like
(50:13):
I was expressing my pain, like this is vanishing, you know,
we're losing this. And it was just a very internal
practice for myself. And you know, it spread to when
I started to work doing work with you know, groups
like the Nature Conservancy or different.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
Conservation groups.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Every time I come up with the project, I think of,
does that words still apply banishing this, And it still
resonates with me. So it has become a larger practice
of what we stand to, what we could lose, what
we could hold on to. But it was also yeah,
(50:58):
again it had started off.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It was a very.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
Small way of me coping by myself in my little
house in Connecticut through all these changes.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
And I believe you have a is it a charcoal
drawing of a koala on your website as a print.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Yeah, that's actually drawn and pencil. So before I had
thought it was a way I was. So I remember
being so stressed in front of the news, and usually
I did large works, so I've watched the news and
I just picked up this pencil and I was just
drawing it. And it felt at that time like holding
on to something. But now I do when I do
(51:38):
those small because and that was also before I had
the charcoal, so that was just it's a very personal piece,
like I could see myself just I need to hold
onto this, you know, like, yeah, just seeing the devastation.
But that's pencil. It is the first artwork that was
directed towards something outside of me.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
So obviously conservation and ecology is important to you. And
also color, it seems looking at your work some of
your pieces I've seen on your website, Johanna, very vivid colors,
very bright, beautiful colors. I'm wondering if that speaks to
your personal color palette and your own fashion and interior design.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Before I started doing these murals, I would have considered
myself a pop artist, and I loved when I was
preteen looking through magazines and cutting out pictures and making
scrapbooks and collecting stickers like Japanese like Hello Kitty stickers. So, actually,
(52:46):
looking back at that, that's probably why I like the
idea of graphic design and advertise.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
I thin, because I.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
Really like like teen magazine or seventeen.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
So I love the pop culture and pop culture, the music,
music videos, not so much fashion. I love looking at
fashion magazines though movies like Star Wars, like and those
bright colors have always been an escape and something that
I can just easily throw myself into.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
And in terms of your fashion, how does that compare
to your color palette?
Speaker 1 (53:24):
Oh my gosh, I wish I had a bitter sense
of fashion. My sister worked in high fashion. You know,
I'm just always wearing the same black tank top and jeans,
so I have to I don't have watch in fashion,
and they alterna into painting clothes.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
So when you look at your work now and the
journey that you've taken, the physically, the miles that you've
covered and traveled, how you've traveled through your own art journey,
what would you say with the pivotal moments, the milestone,
you know, one.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
Was that first day I took that oil painting class.
After that, it was usually a really big life change
or something. And it's only looking back that I see
it like something big haw to happen, like you know,
(54:20):
nine to eleven, my kids growing up, moving out, or
you know, being separated from a loved one in Australia,
or the wildfires or knowing, you know, maybe a natural disaster,
like I think when something like that happens, I'm just
(54:42):
my first instinct is to pick up, you know, some
kind of pigments, say how do I share this feeling
inside of me? Even though if I don't know exactly
what it is at the time, I can look back
and say, oh, you know it was because of that.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
And how about well the relationship, the relationships that you've
been through, how they may have impacted your artistic you're
bent your maybe your motivation, your emotional motivation so to speak.
You mentioned your ex husband, I mean the end of
(55:20):
a major relationship like that, the father of your children.
Sometimes that means that we need to escape, and you've
mentioned that art has been an escape for you before.
How did you how did you navigate your relationships through
your art?
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah? Probably that's one of the biggest influence. And it's
also something I don't have words for, so I yeah,
it's it's huge. You know, I probably don't know how
(56:00):
to express them, but I can try to express them
by going into the studio. Sometimes I listen to certain
songs that will have a personal meaning, and I used
to put those titles or the lyrics of those songs
into paintings. But I think that's probably one of the
(56:23):
biggest things. And expressing who I am or what I
want to be in these relationships or going through the
loss of one or the end of one, it has
always been a really big underlying story of my work
for sure.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Definitely, do you feel you've reached a point in your
journey then emotionally, physically and geographically with your artwork, you
are where you're meant to be. Now you're center in
your work. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
Yeah, Yeah, it's like there was sort of oz, like
I was already always home, Like it's just it's.
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Just so.
Speaker 1 (57:14):
You know, like I you know, I was always there,
but now so much more aware of.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
Again, it's one of those things I've a hard time expressing.
But yeah, although the work, the travel, the moves you know,
the technique I've picked up along the way, the stories
I've told, you know, it all everything I've done. Like
there's no way I would have ever said I want
(57:45):
to be a conservation artist who works with scientists, you know,
Like that's just not something I ever would have said, Like,
and it was a goal I never could have had
it towards. It only became a because this happened and
that happened, and you know, it just kind of resulted
(58:07):
in this without me aiming for it. And the same time,
I finally feel fulfilled and that I have a purpose
in my art that I had been searching for for decades,
finding that purpose and meaning and I was able to
(58:31):
fulfill it in my daily practice. But on this like bigger,
the larger scale, like I definitely feel I'm it was
all leading towards me coming home to Awai and working
with the community that I am here.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
Which equals fulfillment and satisfaction. It seems I'm wondering then
now it might be here today and gone tomorrow. I'm
just wondering how that impacts you, because it's not sustained,
if it's vanished. The satisfaction comes in the creating and
(59:12):
I'm just wondering how the legacy of that piece stays
with you. How do you hold that?
Speaker 1 (59:22):
I see these vanishing murals like experiences, like there's a journey.
Speaker 2 (59:31):
Very similar to.
Speaker 1 (59:34):
The dance performances or the theater performances I was in,
or the practice of like Buddhist monks washing away their
sam mandalas. Like you know, there's the creation and then
the destruction is all part of this experience, and you know,
and that's part of it, the letting go of it.
So whether or not there's anything left behind to hold
(01:00:01):
a view, I mean, that's that's the point of it,
you know, having gone through that whole process.
Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
So how do you define success?
Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Before I went to New York, a really and a
writer that I really admired said that his goal was
not to be this author that you know, just sold
gazillion books. He was looking for the respect of maybe
(01:00:33):
ten percent of artists writers in his field. And I
remember thinking, well, I love that, you know, I really
want to be really respected in the art community for
creating these really amazing, meaningful paintings.
Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
And I didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Now that I'm fifty seven, I would say success means
creating art that I'm really proud of that means a
lot to me and that expresses a story in myself.
Or if I set a creative problem, that I can
(01:01:13):
solve that problem, but success for me would also mean
that my art could also help the community. Or if
I could go back to mayor on the Islands and
kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
Be a part of.
Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
The future of Hawaii, give back in that way, but also.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Be a part of that.
Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
My creative voice is so strong that it's seen as
part of a larger conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
So what next for you, Johnna? What are you working
on now and what does the rest of twenty twenty
five look like for you?
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
For your work, I think most of my work will
continue to be about oceans and you know, coral reefs.
There's a project I'm developing against deep sea mining, and
it's all kind of related, you know, coral reefs, ocean floor,
(01:02:19):
even our native birds. You know, everything is related in
our environment, share working with continuing to work with environmental groups,
and on a personal level, I am writing a children's
book and I yeah, I'm really excited to be working
(01:02:45):
with different groups in the community, and you know, using
art to help share their stories, So I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
It sounds like you're a very busy woman.
Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, people don't realize, like the art, it's
such a small part of the day. Well the other
I mean you can imagine it, I'm sure, but the
rest of it is like the admin or the marketing
or you know, just doing small, small things. So yeah,
it takes a lot of time. But yeah, really really
(01:03:21):
grateful for all of it.
Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Well, it sounds like you're in a very good place now, Janna,
and it's lovely to hear that, and a very interesting
journey that you've had, but lots more to come, and
I wish you the very very best for all of
your artwork and for your writings too. Thank you so
much for taking time to come on the podcast and
share your story. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
It was really so grateful to speak to you and
also have this conversation and hear your input also on
what we talked about.
Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
That it was eye opening for me too. And don't
forget to hop over to a YouTube channel where you'll
see extended conversation that's on the Art podcast and forget
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(01:04:17):
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(01:04:41):
Art as always with two a's, and if you have
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(01:05:04):
us a shout out on your podcast app as well.
My thanks again to my guest, Janahirejo, and to you
for listening. I'll be back in two weeks time, when
my guest will be the multi disciplinary artist and designer
Hannah Polskin. So I do hope you'll join me.
Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
Then
I'm Johnny Ragel and I'm a buraalist.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Art, the podcast where we get
to know women from around the world of visual arts.
I'm Chris Stafford and this is season three, episode seventeen.
My guest this week is the Hawaiian born muralist Jana Horajo,
(00:27):
whose passion as a conservation artist is born out of
a love of art that started at a very young age.
Jana creates vanishing murals using charcoal gathered from areas recently
affected by wildfires. This material, formed by the heat of
the flames, carries the story of destruction and renewal that
(00:49):
is intrinsic to the natural world. She says her art
is a reflection of the transience and impermanence of life
and nature. In Honolulu in nineteen sixty eight, Jana has
spent most of her life in transit, leaving the island
for California before attending grad school in New York, then,
(01:10):
as a divorced woman, to Connecticut, where she raised her family,
and finally returning to Hawaii in twenty twenty three, where
she has come full circle. Jana is the eldest of
three children. She has a younger sister and brother. Her
parents Rona August, a realtor, father James Arasio and stepfather
(01:32):
Joel August, both attorneys. They encouraged her as a child
to explore the arts, taking her to museums and galleries
and ensuring she always had access to arts and crafts.
It was her mother that recognized a natural talent and
told Jana she would become an artist. When the time
(01:54):
came to choose her career path, Janah was drawn to advertising,
and after graduate waiting from H. P. Baldwin High School
in Maori in nineteen eighty six, she headed for the
University of Hawaii at Manoa to earn a BFA in
graphic design in nineteen ninety one. She then attended the
(02:15):
Pratt Institute in New York, where she earned an MFA
in painting in nineteen ninety nine. Jana then took ten
years off from her art to raise a family, before
turning her hand to public murals and developing her own style.
Now back in the Islands as an empty nester, Jana
has immersed herself in her passion for environmental issues such
(02:38):
as the ocean, deep sea mining and helping her community.
She is also working on her first book for children
entitled Vanishing Moon. Jana, Welcome to the podcast. Thank you
so much for joining me all the way from Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm really
excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, set the scene for it. What does it look
like from your studio?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I have an amazing view. I can see the mountains
and towards the sea, so it can tell summer. It's
a little overcast, and I can see the clouds that
will clear to probably a bright, blue sunny day in Hawaii.
So I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
So you have very good light then in your studio, Yes,
but I actually it's so hot.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I keep the windows closed, but it's a yeah, it's
really it's bright all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You're now settled for the last two years near Diamond
Head for those who are familiar with Hawaii. But you've
been such a traveler, Johanna, I don't know where to
begin with your journey. Where would you begin at the
beginning where you were born and how you've circled back
to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, I've moved over forty something times, not necessarily state
to state or country to country, but in different homes
and for no one reason I was born in Honolulu.
My first family house was a Nonocluly. My dad was
(04:16):
a teacher, and then we moved to California. My dad
went to law school. We spent you know a few
years in California, and you know, throughout the years, I've
moved for various family reasons. I was in Maui for
(04:36):
a large part of my life, went to college back
in Honolulu, got married, and just moved a lot for
my ex husband's work or school, and we settled in
Connecticut for about twelve years. And once my kids grew
(04:57):
up off you know, graduated and went off to college,
I moved back home to Honolulu. So yeah, it's been
a long journey and really happy to be back home. Though.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Was it kind of inevitable that your journey would circle
back to Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I think when I moved away, initially I moved to
after graduate school. After undergraduate school, moved to New York,
and I think I might have thought that was the
one way ticket to New York City. I always wanted
to go to school there and live there. I've been
(05:38):
so happy in every state, every town I lived in,
so every time I moved, I thought, this is it.
I'm going to make the most of it, kind of
settle into community. And I never thought I would move
so forty something times later, I knew that was a
(06:00):
big decision. I could stay in Connecticut or come back
home to the Islands where my family was, where my
parents were, and really become invested in the community. And
I've all so yes, yes, I think, deep down, yes,
it was inevitable that I would come back home.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Your heart is there and your soul.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, yeah, and feeling even before the wildfires in Maui,
I knew that a lot of people were moving away,
and I wanted to be a part of returning to Maui,
even though I'm not there right now, and just be
a part of the future.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Has it inspired your art more to be back in
Hawaii Do you think that has changed over the years.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
It's inspired my art more now because there's a real
sense of community in Hawaii. It's so small all that
you know, you run into different people that have played
many roles in your life, so everyone knows each other,
either they're related or what to school or work with
or so what's inspiring to me is that if there's
(07:16):
an issue in the community, we all feel it and
I love the way the community comes together to work
on these larger issues or goals, whether it's something traumatic
like the wildfires, or working towards something you know, positive,
(07:37):
we all kind of get involved, and that's really been
inspiring to me, showing what can be done regardless of
like political parties or views, because we're just kind of
used to working together and putting inside personal differences.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Tell us what it was like growing up in Hawaii, Janna.
You were born in nineteen sixty eight in Honolu, as
you said, and you have a sister and a brother.
Where do you fall chronologically? I'm the oldest, and how
did that represent itself when you were younger? Did you
feel like you were much the oldest and there were
(08:14):
expectations of you that might have been different for your siblings. Yeah,
I think like.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
A typical oldest child, I probably took one a lot,
and you know, probably thought I was right all the
time and that.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
The younger one should listen to me.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I growing up here, and I was also the oldest
of a bunch of cousins, so you know, we on
the summers and weekends, we just went to grandma's house,
and both grandma's houses and we were just it just
felt like we were let loose wild.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I mean we I remember growing up.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
With my cousins and just like a pack would go
into the stream and try to boats and catch the
bus to the beach and go to the library and
roam around. And I think it was only moving away
that I realized how much we were connected to nature.
(09:16):
And my dad would take us to the beach every weekend,
different beaches around the island, so all of us would
be piled into his little car, and you know, we
just kind of grew up really comfortable in the water,
you know, fighting and playing, and I did feel like
I was responsible for, you know, all my younger cousins.
(09:40):
But at the same time it was I think growing
up in Hawaii, you just really don't realize how much
nature is a part of And as I got older
in high school, we would go to the beach and
then go to the stream, and you know, there were
no fun and I think we were always in nature,
(10:06):
looking for our friends, listening to music. And now when
I move back, I look at it new eyes, like
how I would never go into the stream.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
You know, it's probably dirty or.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So I think that the health of nature became something
I don't take it for granted.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Does this mean you were a great swimmer and surfer.
It all seems that that is like a second nature
to any Hawaiian, that you're going to be natural in
water and do all those water sports. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I grew up really comfortable in the water because my dad,
who was a surfer, made sure that we could float.
He would say, you have to be able to float
for an hour just in case you get, you know,
washed up to the deep. And so it kind of
teach us to float on our back, and they do
this dead man's float, and there's a saying that we
(11:03):
all grew up with, never turn your back to the ocean.
So we grew up respecting the water. But it's not
that common for, unfortunately, for a lot of people to
learn how to swim. My dad happened to learn to
swim because he was a surfer. His parents moved to
Waikiki when he was young. But most, I would say,
(11:24):
a lot of people don't know how to swim, which
is really awful considering we're on an island, and I
think surfing is one of the I mean, drowning is
one of the leading causes of death for kids in Hawaii.
So that's something I'm really passionate about to you know,
(11:44):
the fact that we all should learn to swim because
we were on an island, but I'm very comfortable in
the water. I and then, but it was on Connecticut
where actually learned to open water swim and swim competitively
in triathlons. And I think when you do grow up
(12:04):
in the water or the streams or hikien, you do
tend to feel more protective of the environment. So that's
another reason why I'm super inspired to be back in Hawaii,
feeling that I can create art to highlight different issues
of the beaches and the streams that I really love.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Are you still a triathlete?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
No? And I started running when I was in my forties.
I accidentally joined a troth lung gym in Connecticut and
I said, I'm going to learn to swim. So I
did that and at that point about us we'll start cycling.
And that was something that really first brought my mind,
(12:55):
brought the awareness of how a stream can be cleaned
up or a river. We because I did the New
York City Triathlon and the swim was in the Hudson River,
and also like, oh, that doesn't seem so clean. But
then there was this whole they were really celebrating the
fact that the Hudson River had been cleaned after all
(13:17):
these years of being really polluted, and that was really well.
I was like, wow, we can swim in here. They
can really you can really improve the environment. So that was, uh,
that was very eye opening.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Were you age grouped in triathlon?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yes, yeah, I was in the forties, forty forty fives. Yeah,
I still I still run.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I don't know bikers swim anymore. So would you say
you're very competitive? Yes, I like that.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I guess traathlon's you're all You're always are racing in
your age group, and it wouldn't be fun if I
was just swimming, cycling or running without that. But I
also know that I've just driven to if I choose
a hobby or have a goal, I'm just really driven
(14:12):
to be the best that I can, and I really
love when everyone around me is doing the same. I
also think that, you know, there's uh so I'm competitive
mostly with myself, but I enjoy the competitive nature of
you know, sports for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So was that evident then when you were a child,
aside from the water. Sports. Were you very sporty in school?
Not at all?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
In fact, I was really shy. I would say all
my friends in high school, anyone who had known me before,
would have the last person to start running or be
on any like. I'd never been on a team. I mean,
I was a cheerleader, but I had never I was
the person who has picked for sports. I was really shy.
(15:02):
I was always reading. I grew up dancing, so maybe
that's was the most competitive, but we weren't leaving. I
did like performing, but no, like not. I was never athletic,
but you know, running you can kind of the more
you do it to get better. And being in that
tarathlon Jim with the great coaches, I think, whatever you do,
(15:27):
you could find a great coach too, you know, become
good at it. And yeah, so I credited all to
the great the great coaches I had.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, you competitive with your siblings, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I think as an oldest child, maybe you know, besides
the part about feeling I know better, I my sister
and my brother and I all recognized that my mother
did a really good job of kind of celebrating all
our differences and not creating an environment of competition with them.
(16:07):
Is that I think we all really appreciate, we're very
supportive of each other.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Arts, of course, is a very singular occupation, but it
sounds as if it was something that you felt comfortable
with from a very early age and you're always encouraged
by your family to participate. Do you know where that
came from? What the initial interest was in arts as
(16:35):
a child? Some of my.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
First memories are of me drawing in front of a window,
just looking out the window and drawing the field that
was outside. So I think my mom must have seen
that at a really young age, like two three four
years old. I think she must have seen me some
(17:03):
creative streak enough to buy me like these really expensive
colored pencils and put me into art classes. So I
think she must have seen that I really liked it
at that young age, and yeah, it just always felt
like an escape, like a yeah, and I remember being
(17:29):
pretty young when I started.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
What sort of age would you have been.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
When we lived in the house where I can see
that window, I would have been. And my babysitter at
that time said that my mom had always said John
is going to be a painter, specifically a painter. I
would have been like four and five, And.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It was a long time, was it before you realized
that your mother spoke some very true words, that that
was what you were destined to be?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, I I you know, I took my first I
liked to draw and at some point, but we didn't
have a lot of art classes in public school back then.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
She always put me into art class. I loved dancing,
and when I had to choose a major in undergraduate school,
I had this vague idea I was going to go
into advertising, and I chose graphic design. But it wasn't
until I took my first painting class. And she would
(18:32):
always say, I think you're going to be a painter,
and I was like, no, it's messy the art room.
There's weird people and it's just not It's just like
just messy and weird people in the paint and I
I think. I had to take a painting class in
graphic in the graphic design program, and I took acrylics
(18:54):
and that was okay, but it was the day I
took oil painting, and I can just remember it just
came over me. At this point, I'm in my early
twenties and I said, this is it. I knew I
could make oil paint do whatever I wanted it to do,
and I can remember the smell and the way it felt,
(19:15):
and you know, it took over twenty years, but my
mom was right, like, I don't know how she knew
painting specifically, but it was really true.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
What kind of things were you painting back then, Johanna?
What was inspiring you my teachers?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I had a really amazing undergraduate foundation experience at University
of Hawaii, and it was pretty formal. We had very
old school like drafting and figure drawing and all the fundamentals.
And so once we got past that, I had a
really good figure painting teacher, we got higher in the
(20:02):
program and we're more free to draw what we wanted.
The teachers were inspired by that kind of California, like
Deep and Corn Gosh, the artist who does the the
Slice of Cake. So I would say it's a very
California inspired abstract expressionism that I really loved that, But
(20:31):
you know, it was oil painting. And we had a
great studio with a lot of room and places to
store large paintings. I remember thinking, I'm going to do
really large paintings, so no one knows that I'm short
and a female. Like I had this like just gonna
do these really big, large scale paintings. But when I
(20:53):
once I moved to graduate school in New York and
we had to work really small and inclosed environments, I
started doing small acrylics, and that actually has stayed for
quite a while. Like it was really dependent on the
type of studio had dictated a lot of the work
I did.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But then you went big because now, as a muralist,
your paintings must be really quite large, are they? What's
the largest youb ever done for a mural. I did
a sixty foot wide mural. It was six feet tall,
so I remember thinking, wow, that's really big. But I'm
quite comfortable doing six foot tall murals, so I just
(21:32):
kind of thought of it as ten, you know, a
little painting smaller paintings. Yeah, I mean, I haven't done
the huge, huge ones on the sides of buildings, but yeah,
I'm comfortable creating bigger works. When I was in Connecticut,
(21:53):
I started, I took a wall in my garage and
I had been doing this oil paintings, and often a
painting can take a year or a couple of years,
for me to finish in oil painting. At some point
I just got why I really want to do something
that's more ephemeral, and I started in twenty fifteen about
(22:14):
then started creating these murals on my wall that I
would paint and then paint over, paint and paint over
and start again. So it's this really idea of letting
go painting large, not having an attachment to it, and
that really led to a lot of the work I
do today too. When you say not have an attachment
to it, how does that feel to detach yourself when
(22:38):
you're putting so much of yourself into it.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I think for those early garage wall murals, and I
love that. My son at that time, he was maybe ten,
he's he called it my forever wall. Even though I
was painting and washing away, painting, painting and painting over,
I remember thinking it was like a lesson in.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Not being attached.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And part of it is I've moved so many times.
I do recognize that, constantly moving, always being the new
girl and saying goodbye and saying hello again, saying goodbye,
and just you know, the painting over it was just
(23:28):
a reinforcement of yes, you know you have to get
used to loss and saying goodbye and starting over, and
that practice can be something. I had this vague idea
that if I could practice letting go, I would be
able to take more risks in my art practice. I
(23:53):
don't know if I really associated with my life, but
I remember thinking, if I can just you know, I'll
paint whatever I want because no one's going to see
this wall, I can take more of a risk and
maybe surprises will happen.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Was out then a vehicle for you to transition through
all the changes that you've made in life, you know,
she said, the goodbyees, the helloes, the casting off, starting
a new Do you feel that art is an important
part of that journey for you to adjust each time
(24:29):
with an outlet of painting very large forms too.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah, it definitely was, if I look back now, a
way to cope then escape, you know, dancing, performing to
like having that, you know, putting on a character. And
it's something I never would have thought when I was
(24:56):
starting out in art school that.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It would be.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
This way of getting through expressing my life. I just
did not see that. I was really aware of art movements,
and you know, the artists that came before me and
you know, in my twenties, so that would have been
like the nineties, I would have thought, I'm creating art
in this as a response to or referring to, like
(25:27):
abstract expressionism or you know, this kind of formal you know,
I was very aware of what was happening in biennials
and the art shows in New York, and I was
reading all the art magazines, so I thought I was
kind of involved in that art world conversation or but
and I think I would have thought talking about my
(25:48):
own and also in the nineties in New York, like
portrait art was not really in style at all or figurative.
So but the older I get, yeah, sure, I could
see that it was I was expressing these stories and
these happenings that were going on in my life, and
(26:09):
I knew the art was more powerful for it, even
though I wasn't really recognized.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
As an artist really ever.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I just kind of working them in my in my
house and you know, maybe showing a little bit at
local shows, but I was mostly raising my kids and
it wasn't until recently that and I just I just
remember very focused, I need to express these problems or
these stories. I set out to express, but I didn't really. Yeah,
(26:44):
it's just amazing how that those persons, that personal way
of looking at art also applies to a more community.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Focused too. How do you feel about letting go? Then?
When you finished peace.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I now see it as so I create murals that
are using non permanent earth pigments, and I started out
by leaving them outside in the brain, and sometimes I
wash them away and.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I feel it looks like.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Tears are falling when when I'm washing them away, and
it just really feels like a cathartic experience, something to
help me.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Adjust to change.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Often there for personal stories like my son's, you know,
my first son going to college, and without knowing, I
create these paintings of these endangered species, these animals, but
they directly affect to, I mean relate to like my
(27:59):
son and my younger son when he went off. And
I think I realize looking back that these art works
were related to something that's happening happening to my personal life.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And you know, I.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Feel really sad when I'm creating the art, and then
by the time I washed away, it feels like it
just helped me through that process. But you know, there's
still that ghost image that remains, and that it's something
very comforting to see, like things change, but you know,
the memories are so strong and I'm usually really grateful
(28:37):
for everything that I've experienced.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
How soon can you start a new piece? Then once
you've finished another?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
For these spanishy murals, it takes me a while to
start up again.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Like I have a.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Whale behind me on the studio wall that I think
I washed away and might have been February or March
so and it's still there. Like I so it's been
a few months. I will probably think about, you know,
drawing a new one over it if there's a deadline,
(29:12):
and if I'm working with another group, like a conservation group,
I can start again, you know, that's it's a new project.
But to do it on the same wall, there is space,
like a time to think about it in a process.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
What that experience went through. And as we said earlier,
your parents were very encouraging you off your art and
took you to exhibitions, to museums, and so you had
early exposure to other artists who were you noticing very
early on in your childhood who was inspiring you.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh gosh, I my mom said that she used to
take us to a museum in California and there she
always talks about me Sta in front of a painting,
just staring at again, I would have been like five
ish six of there's a paint, a famous painting. Enough
(30:10):
is it John the Baptist? Where's head is on a
severed head on a platter? I don't know, there's some
religious painting of this guy with a severed head and
a platter. And I remember being eighteen and going to
the Museum of Modern Art and seeing works like Christina's
(30:31):
World and The Boating Party. So I just remember seeing
paintings that seemed very melancholy in Edward Hopper in the
storytelling aspect of it, and then also looking at Impressionists
art really closely and saying, oh, there's they can make
(30:52):
a glass just by using these really quick gestural brushstrokes.
And then when I was in graduate school, I was
really focused on Northern Renaissance art. So I really like
that kind of paintings where every subject matter, the pigments,
(31:16):
we're all telling a story.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Are you a collector?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I try not to be, because I've most so many
times that it's just a real hassle moving. I would
have said books, but over the years I have had
to give up a lot of books. I try not
to be but I still have a clutter of things
I buy. I like, I love Hello Kitty things, but
(31:43):
I try not to buy them.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I'm wondering if you collect from your own heritage, your
own family heritage. So I want to talk about that
a little bit, Johnna, because you have a very interesting
family heritage, and your grandmother the yakina and got grandmother
practiced at kabana, which is a Japanese floral arrangement there,
so you had some introduction to things that were part
(32:09):
of your heritage. Talk a little bit about that if
you would.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, my grandmother she did a kibana. I remember her
dancing like Japanese dance and listening to Okinawan music. And
her father, I remember he always had a camera. I
think it was the music, and you know, watching my
grandmother and my grandfather watched Japanese TV every night after dinner.
(32:38):
That I can hear that in the background, but it
seems like it was kind of in the background, not
really something I knew about. Both of my grandparents didn't
really speak Japanese or Chinese to the kids at all.
It was something they spoke with their friends or you know,
(33:00):
it's always English. And I think it's now that I've
come back to Hawaii, definitely more interested in the Okinawa
Club and you know, the Chinese, you know, the rituals
and the culture and being in Hawaii and all that
is so definitely more interested now than I was back then.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Is that on your mother's side Japanese.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah, my dad's side is Okino and yeah, Japanese and
my mom's side there's a mix, mainly Chinese, so.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
It's a very interesting oriental mix. Then. I I'd imagine
that would have been also a source of inspiration artistically
for you given those very different cultures, but so much
art heritage there.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, and I think a lot of people don't realize
how different, you know, Japanese Chinese is. You know, let alone,
my stepfather's Jewish and my my birth father's really into
like Hawaii Hawaiian culture.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
You know, again, at University of Hawaii, the art history
professors were you know, we're in the East West, in
the middle of Pacific, so a lot of the professors,
you know, I had amazing Asian art classes and looking back,
even in high school, like my chemistry teacher, and just
(34:29):
in that general that those Buddhist principles were kind of
always around that idea of things change, seasons change, and
I don't know if that that was just a cultural things.
I don't think, you know, I was ever taught that
it was just kind of something that was always kind
of hovering over our lives.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Did your parents encourage you to get to know your
family heritage or is this something you inferred just now
that you're more interested in it now than maybe you
were when you were younger and have a new appreciation
for it. Yeah, I don't think my.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
You know, my grandparents they yeah, it was never something
really spoken about, but I yeah, not even in the
food like my mom she cooks like Italian Mediterranean. I
think again, being away from Hawaii and then seeing you know,
(35:41):
there was a lot of pride. The more questions I
asked about, you know what, learning about the Japanese being interred,
the Japanese Deternament camps. I had written a paper in
intermediate school about the camps and and my stepfather was
(36:04):
the attorney for this legal battle between whole lobby this
Hawaiian island against the US Navy. And I think the
more questions I asked about those big moments in history,
I started being aware how much pride there was and
(36:26):
also how humble. And you know, in Hawaii, a lot
of people don't speak about their work to put themselves
in a to shine a light on the work, because
generally it's felt like you're part of a group and
that no one kind of is like looking for the
(36:48):
attention for the work that they do. So I think
my generation is also aware of that, and it's starting
to ask more questions and document or share the stories,
knowing how humble and modest and you know the story
everyone is.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
So can you speak Japanese or Chinese? No, it's so terrible.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
I was.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I never had to learn a language. I was in
this gap year because now everyone has to learn a language.
I think I took Japanese for one year in high school,
but it's no, I can't and I wish I could.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Just going back to when you were choosing school, you
mentioned earlier that you did have your site set on advertising,
and you chose graphic design at the University of fiim
Man Noah and got your BFA there, graduating in nineteen
ninety one, and then you went to institute to the painting,
so by then you had decided that was your course.
(37:54):
The one drew you initially to take that passway. You know,
when we have to make that decision what school we're
going to go to and what we're going to study
when you were in high school and what was the
pivotal point where you made that decision? Oh gosh, that.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, that is a big jump, especially coming from MAUI
I don't think I knew anyone in graphic design, or
I must have been taking art classes at local art
schools outside of high school. Yeah, it's probably I didn't
(38:38):
know what else to do, Like I knew I was
better at art than other things, Like it certainly wasn't math.
I really wanted to be an MTV dancer if you
had asked me. I wanted to do dance and music videos,
but I knew I wasn't good enough for that, So
I must have chosen liberal arts. And you know, graphic
design sounds like the way there you can get you
(39:02):
can there's a career in art in going that route, and.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
It was very trendy, wasn't it back then? To grafic design.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Probably yeah, yeah, probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks for saying that,
because I'm trying to make that connection.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Why did I choose that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, and I was, you know, I was so happy.
You know, I took like typography, we drew the letters,
you know, I could make my own stretcher bars, I
could stretch my own chemases. Computers had just come to
h but I learned dark room, photography, ceramics like it
(39:40):
was really well rounded by hand courses of study, which
are pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Well kind of teenager? Were you, John? Are you patient?
I would say so. I you mentioned that you were shy. Yeah,
so I'm wondering if you were the shy girl that
sat in the corner with a book, or you know,
if you did venture out to partisan you know, the
(40:11):
normal college life.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I you know, once I moved
we moved to Maui from Honolulu, you know, and after
so many years of always being the new girl, we
moved to Maui and all of a sudden, I'm from
the big city of Honolulu, so I had more friends
and you know, my social life really started moving to Maui.
I had friends, people are very kind, and you know,
(40:36):
I had people too. Yeah, I started going out. I
was a cheerleader. We you know, went to football games,
and I was performing, So I would say I was
still very naturally shy, but you know, extroverted too. And
even now, let's say there's those different in that di
(40:58):
economy of being very happy.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Alone working in the studio.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
But you know, I love the performing and I do
have close friends, so yeah, it's it's I guess it's extremes.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
But your mother, quite different, must have been extrovert, she
rona August. She was a real uh huh so a
different personality. Yeah, yeah, yeah, how is your relationship with her?
Speaker 1 (41:27):
You know it? She it's all surprising how much she
knows again, like how she knew I would be an artist.
Like when you say your mother knows this, like it's
infuriating sometimes, but she really does it.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Like she she she knows.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
I mean she's yeah, very intuitively, she knows when you're
in trouble or and I think she is the very
creative one. Actually think she's you know, she never followed
an art practice, but she's very creative. And I actually
(42:10):
think very athletic too, So I think, you know, we're
a lot alike, and as the years go by, I
see that more and more.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Would you be more extrovert than you? Though? When I
saw that she was a realtor, I thought perhaps she'd
be more extrovert than you were.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, yeah, definitely more. I never thought about that too,
like you know, someone who's realture, because that's something I
would never do again. You'd have to talk to people
like out of the blue. Yeah, yeah, for sure, Like
we're actually not alike at all, but but I guess Yeah,
(42:48):
she's very in tune too, but always been so supportive
of who I am, even though I'm so different from her,
which thanks for saying that, because and I really appreciate
how her Yeah, being that way.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
And then of course graduating as you did in nineteen
ninety nine and very well educated and definitely veering towards
a career in the arts. What was the next step
for you? Did you find work right out of school?
Speaker 3 (43:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (43:25):
I was married then, and pretty soon after I had
my first son. It was after nine to eleven, and
I remember that kind of just shifted everything, Like, you know,
I was going to have kids anyway, but I remember
that really affected me, and you know, I had kids,
(43:45):
I still was able to paint. But there was a
ten year gap in my resume from like two thousand
and two to twenty twelve, just raising kids that I
remember thinking, wow, I've really done nothing in ten years
art wise, But yeah, so I did. And back then
(44:10):
it was before the internet. I don't have art world connections.
I never worked in the arts so and I was
moving a lot. So I'll do you know, shows in
the city I've lived in, But I was mostly raising
kids during those years, the early years.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
That's Noah who's just graduated college, and Kai who's a
sophomore in college. Two boys. So are they at all
interested in art and what you do? They're very creative
with my art projects.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
I'll often ask them, you know, what's the best way
to tell this story, especially if it's an environmental issue.
They're amazing artists. Every year, on my birthday or Christmas
or a holiday date, they'll draw in this book of
this big drawing book I have since they'll draw me
a picture.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
But they don't.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
They're not pursuing our careers. But I can see that
they are very creative, and yeah, you know, I have
hope that they'll take it up as hobbies. But as
if yet not not yet.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
At what point then, when you started to take your
very seriously did you realize that you could actually make
a living out of this, that you were selling enough
work to be sustaining a few years before.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
My kids were going off to college, so you know,
the last years in Connecticut, I started realizing, Okay, what
am I going to do once they're gone? And I
had been selling, you know, paintings, thinking about being a teacher.
And it wasn't until I did my first mural it
(46:06):
was it was public art, thinking I could do this.
I knew I could tell the stories. Public art became
very important to me during the pandemic and realizing and
before that, you know, I was doing work in you know,
i'd have a show in a gallery and you know,
maybe two hundred people would come and see it. I
(46:28):
would sell a couple of paintings, but I remember thinking,
you know, more people need to see art, and if
it's out in the public, more people see it. So
I got like a commission for a bus shelter, and
then you know, did a commit job with the Nature
Conservancy and I started thinking, yeah, well I could really
(46:49):
make a living off this and be really excited about this.
Direction in my practice.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
So why did you choose vanishing Murals? And that caused
the name of your website, which we'll put a link to.
How did you arrive there?
Speaker 1 (47:07):
I was in like twenty very late twenty nineteen. I
was in Connecticut dating someone in Australia and they had
in December twenty nineteen January twenty twenty these megafires that
just went through Australia, and I was in Connecticut just
(47:32):
watching it on the news, just you know, seeing the fires,
seeing people running towards the beach, and I just remember
just being just devastated and almost frozen in fear. And I,
you know, after days of watching some of the news,
(47:52):
I learned that the koalas couldn't run from the fires,
and that just triggered all emotions get broke open and
I and then COVID happened right after, and I just
I remember thinking to myself, the Earth is screaming. I
didn't have any words for climate change, that was not
(48:13):
on my radar. I just remember thinking that Earth is screaming,
and I drew I was drawing this small koala just
like a way of cope and process again. And then
I remember thinking, you know, not that it's the end
of the world, but it felt like it was the
end of the world. And I said, what am I
(48:34):
doing with art? It doesn't mean anything, It has no meaning.
It just makes no sense. And I remember thinking, I
want to make an artwork that can't be sold or
bought and that expresses this loss that I feel. And
for the first time in my practice, I started thinking, Okay,
not only do I feel this, but I know everyone
(48:55):
is feeling this way, and if not, you know, maybe
they're worse off than me. I just remember, think the
whole world is going through this like change and loss
and fear, but at the same time hope. And I
just thought about it for a few days and I
and again I thought a mural had been doing these
murals in my garage, but the idea of paint seemed
(49:17):
so plastic and not just couldn't express. And then I remember,
back in the day, when I was younger, we used
to have these brush fires on Maui.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
You know, I'd pick up the charcoal and draw on
the rocks.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
And I one day I just thought of this, drawing
this large koala using charcoal from the wildfires. So the
guy I was dating at the time had sent me
charcoal from the wildfires in Australia and I conceived this
Kuala mural that when the rain came it would wash
(49:50):
away and look like tears are falling. And I remember
thinking I would call it vanishing Koala. So for the
next two years in quarantine, I just drew these murals
all over my house, like outside in the wall, in
my garage, you know, in my and I would say vanishing,
you know, whatever the species was. So it felt like
(50:13):
I was expressing my pain, like this is vanishing, you know,
we're losing this. And it was just a very internal
practice for myself. And you know, it spread to when
I started to work doing work with you know, groups
like the Nature Conservancy or different.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
Conservation groups.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Every time I come up with the project, I think of,
does that words still apply banishing this, And it still
resonates with me. So it has become a larger practice
of what we stand to, what we could lose, what
we could hold on to. But it was also yeah,
(50:58):
again it had started off.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It was a very.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
Small way of me coping by myself in my little
house in Connecticut through all these changes.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
And I believe you have a is it a charcoal
drawing of a koala on your website as a print.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Yeah, that's actually drawn and pencil. So before I had
thought it was a way I was. So I remember
being so stressed in front of the news, and usually
I did large works, so I've watched the news and
I just picked up this pencil and I was just
drawing it. And it felt at that time like holding
on to something. But now I do when I do
(51:38):
those small because and that was also before I had
the charcoal, so that was just it's a very personal piece,
like I could see myself just I need to hold
onto this, you know, like, yeah, just seeing the devastation.
But that's pencil. It is the first artwork that was
directed towards something outside of me.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
So obviously conservation and ecology is important to you. And
also color, it seems looking at your work some of
your pieces I've seen on your website, Johanna, very vivid colors,
very bright, beautiful colors. I'm wondering if that speaks to
your personal color palette and your own fashion and interior design.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Before I started doing these murals, I would have considered
myself a pop artist, and I loved when I was
preteen looking through magazines and cutting out pictures and making
scrapbooks and collecting stickers like Japanese like Hello Kitty stickers. So, actually,
(52:46):
looking back at that, that's probably why I like the
idea of graphic design and advertise.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
I thin, because I.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
Really like like teen magazine or seventeen.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
So I love the pop culture and pop culture, the music,
music videos, not so much fashion. I love looking at
fashion magazines though movies like Star Wars, like and those
bright colors have always been an escape and something that
I can just easily throw myself into.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
And in terms of your fashion, how does that compare
to your color palette?
Speaker 1 (53:24):
Oh my gosh, I wish I had a bitter sense
of fashion. My sister worked in high fashion. You know,
I'm just always wearing the same black tank top and jeans,
so I have to I don't have watch in fashion,
and they alterna into painting clothes.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
So when you look at your work now and the
journey that you've taken, the physically, the miles that you've
covered and traveled, how you've traveled through your own art journey,
what would you say with the pivotal moments, the milestone,
you know, one.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
Was that first day I took that oil painting class.
After that, it was usually a really big life change
or something. And it's only looking back that I see
it like something big haw to happen, like you know,
(54:20):
nine to eleven, my kids growing up, moving out, or
you know, being separated from a loved one in Australia,
or the wildfires or knowing, you know, maybe a natural disaster,
like I think when something like that happens, I'm just
(54:42):
my first instinct is to pick up, you know, some
kind of pigments, say how do I share this feeling
inside of me? Even though if I don't know exactly
what it is at the time, I can look back
and say, oh, you know it was because of that.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
And how about well the relationship, the relationships that you've
been through, how they may have impacted your artistic you're
bent your maybe your motivation, your emotional motivation so to speak.
You mentioned your ex husband, I mean the end of
(55:20):
a major relationship like that, the father of your children.
Sometimes that means that we need to escape, and you've
mentioned that art has been an escape for you before.
How did you how did you navigate your relationships through
your art?
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah? Probably that's one of the biggest influence. And it's
also something I don't have words for, so I yeah,
it's it's huge. You know, I probably don't know how
(56:00):
to express them, but I can try to express them
by going into the studio. Sometimes I listen to certain
songs that will have a personal meaning, and I used
to put those titles or the lyrics of those songs
into paintings. But I think that's probably one of the
(56:23):
biggest things. And expressing who I am or what I
want to be in these relationships or going through the
loss of one or the end of one, it has
always been a really big underlying story of my work
for sure.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Definitely, do you feel you've reached a point in your
journey then emotionally, physically and geographically with your artwork, you
are where you're meant to be. Now you're center in
your work. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
Yeah, Yeah, it's like there was sort of oz, like
I was already always home, Like it's just it's.
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Just so.
Speaker 1 (57:14):
You know, like I you know, I was always there,
but now so much more aware of.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
Again, it's one of those things I've a hard time expressing.
But yeah, although the work, the travel, the moves you know,
the technique I've picked up along the way, the stories
I've told, you know, it all everything I've done. Like
there's no way I would have ever said I want
(57:45):
to be a conservation artist who works with scientists, you know,
Like that's just not something I ever would have said, Like,
and it was a goal I never could have had
it towards. It only became a because this happened and
that happened, and you know, it just kind of resulted
(58:07):
in this without me aiming for it. And the same time,
I finally feel fulfilled and that I have a purpose
in my art that I had been searching for for decades,
finding that purpose and meaning and I was able to
(58:31):
fulfill it in my daily practice. But on this like bigger,
the larger scale, like I definitely feel I'm it was
all leading towards me coming home to Awai and working
with the community that I am here.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
Which equals fulfillment and satisfaction. It seems I'm wondering then
now it might be here today and gone tomorrow. I'm
just wondering how that impacts you, because it's not sustained,
if it's vanished. The satisfaction comes in the creating and
(59:12):
I'm just wondering how the legacy of that piece stays
with you. How do you hold that?
Speaker 1 (59:22):
I see these vanishing murals like experiences, like there's a journey.
Speaker 2 (59:31):
Very similar to.
Speaker 1 (59:34):
The dance performances or the theater performances I was in,
or the practice of like Buddhist monks washing away their
sam mandalas. Like you know, there's the creation and then
the destruction is all part of this experience, and you know,
and that's part of it, the letting go of it.
So whether or not there's anything left behind to hold
(01:00:01):
a view, I mean, that's that's the point of it,
you know, having gone through that whole process.
Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
So how do you define success?
Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Before I went to New York, a really and a
writer that I really admired said that his goal was
not to be this author that you know, just sold
gazillion books. He was looking for the respect of maybe
(01:00:33):
ten percent of artists writers in his field. And I
remember thinking, well, I love that, you know, I really
want to be really respected in the art community for
creating these really amazing, meaningful paintings.
Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
And I didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Now that I'm fifty seven, I would say success means
creating art that I'm really proud of that means a
lot to me and that expresses a story in myself.
Or if I set a creative problem, that I can
(01:01:13):
solve that problem, but success for me would also mean
that my art could also help the community. Or if
I could go back to mayor on the Islands and
kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
Be a part of.
Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
The future of Hawaii, give back in that way, but also.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Be a part of that.
Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
My creative voice is so strong that it's seen as
part of a larger conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
So what next for you, Johnna? What are you working
on now and what does the rest of twenty twenty
five look like for you?
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
For your work, I think most of my work will
continue to be about oceans and you know, coral reefs.
There's a project I'm developing against deep sea mining, and
it's all kind of related, you know, coral reefs, ocean floor,
(01:02:19):
even our native birds. You know, everything is related in
our environment, share working with continuing to work with environmental groups,
and on a personal level, I am writing a children's
book and I yeah, I'm really excited to be working
(01:02:45):
with different groups in the community, and you know, using
art to help share their stories, So I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
It sounds like you're a very busy woman.
Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, people don't realize, like the art, it's
such a small part of the day. Well the other
I mean you can imagine it, I'm sure, but the
rest of it is like the admin or the marketing
or you know, just doing small, small things. So yeah,
it takes a lot of time. But yeah, really really
(01:03:21):
grateful for all of it.
Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Well, it sounds like you're in a very good place now, Janna,
and it's lovely to hear that, and a very interesting
journey that you've had, but lots more to come, and
I wish you the very very best for all of
your artwork and for your writings too. Thank you so
much for taking time to come on the podcast and
share your story. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
It was really so grateful to speak to you and
also have this conversation and hear your input also on
what we talked about.
Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
That it was eye opening for me too. And don't
forget to hop over to a YouTube channel where you'll
see extended conversation that's on the Art podcast and forget
two a's in art and you'll find a lot more
episodes of extended conversations and bonus content with many of
our guests, so be sure to check us out there,
(01:04:17):
give us a follow, of course, and subscribe so you'll
be the first to know when new content has landed
on our YouTube channel. And if you enjoy the show,
then please do share this with anyone you else you
think might enjoy it too, and give us a follow
on social media. We're at the Art Podcast on Instagram
and you can reach us of course via email if
you prefer. That's the Art Podcast at gmail dot com.
(01:04:41):
Art as always with two a's, and if you have
any suggestions for guests, we always would love to hear
from you. Don't forget if you have a chance while
you're on your podcast app to give us a five
star rating and review, because that helps others find the
show by raising our visibility amongst the thousands and things thousands,
no millions of podcasts out there, so please do give
(01:05:04):
us a shout out on your podcast app as well.
My thanks again to my guest, Janahirejo, and to you
for listening. I'll be back in two weeks time, when
my guest will be the multi disciplinary artist and designer
Hannah Polskin. So I do hope you'll join me.
Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
Then
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