Artist Completes Mural Commissioned by Hawaiian Airlines

Hawai‘i artist Kamea Hadar stands in front of his completed mural. PC: Hawaiian Airlines.

The first large-scale mural commissioned by Hawaiian Airlines was completed recently by Hawai‘i street artist Kamea Hadar. In an effort to support local artists, the mural was created during the 2018 POW! WOW! festival held in Long Beach, California—the latest city in the state added to Hawaiian’s flight route.

The 60-foot-tall mural is themed on the importance of protecting natural resources and was inspired by water and the role it plays in sustaining life. It features two female dancers and celebrates Hawai‘i’s ahupua‘a—the ancient land divisions extending from mountain to sea.

“We are honored to build on our POW! WOW! partnership to provide artists an outlet where they can express their talents beyond Hawai‘i through larger-than-life murals,” said Avi Mannis, senior vice president of marketing at Hawaiian Airlines. “Visual storytelling is a powerful tool to share our culture and help engage communities globally around important topics such as sustainability.”

Hadar’s Long Beach mural sponsored by Hawaiian Airlines is the first artwork to be unveiled in a series of upcoming commissioned pieces called “Mālama ‘Āina” (to care for Mother Earth).

“When we started the discussions with Hawaiian Airlines to have sponsored murals at certain POW! WOW!s, we decided that the common thread (other than them being painted by a Hawai‘i artist) would be the themes of ‘Mālama’ and ‘Kōkua’,” said Hadar. “The piece combines two figures that represent the balancing of ancient traditions and our contemporary urban society. They are both representations of the same person trying to find inner balance. One figure looks down and focuses on her hand and how it gently causes ripples through the dress and interacts and connects her to the background and thus water, while the other looks to the viewer with her hand over her mouth, calling for them to listen [to nature].”

In 2016, the airline worked with Hadar and Tokyo-based husband and wife duo Kami and Sasu Hitotzuki to collaborate on a live painting of a Hawaiian airport service vehicle. Hadar also painted a similar service vehicle in support of the launch of 2014 POW! WOW! Hawaiʻi. In 2015, Hawaiian secured New Zealand artist duo BMD to paint images depicting some of the country’s landscapes and native animals on another service vehicle marking the airline’s second anniversary of service between Auckland and Honolulu.

Hawaiian is the official airline sponsor of POW! WOW! Hawai‘i, a global art, culture and music organization.