Aloha, I’m Patrick Ching.
Welcome to Art in Paradise, the show that highlights Kauai’s favorite artists.
Today I’m here with Curtis Cabral.
If you’ve been to the Ching Young Village in Hanalei, you’ve seen Curtis’ artwork.
Curtis, where did you get your start in art?
In San Diego.
I took a couple of classes and the art instructor, after the second day in class, said quit your
job and be an artist.
I ended up quitting my job and becoming an artist.
You must have done something right, because at this point the Ching Young village trusts
you to do the murals throughout the entire shopping center.
Hey.
This in one of my favorite ones.
This area right here, I really like it, it’s kinda zen.
It’s a memorial for Larry Ching.
Here we are.
This is an alter, if you will.
I call this the wet look.
Surf!
Doing these types of signs where you have to keep a straight line isn’t easy.
I gotta do it at night.
Tell us about large scale paintings.
You’re painting on building that are really tall, you’re using all kinds of equipment
and scaffolding.
One time I was doing spray can art outside this window.
I had to hang on to the window mold and spray at the same time.
There’s a lot of hanging on with the can.
He had to repel off the building and spray-paint that on.
I felt like Superman with one arm.
I just got used to it, I really wanted the money.
They say “can you do that?”
and I say “yeah, I can do that, I’ll get up there.”
That’s an answer that clients like to hear.
Yeah, I can go there.
I heard you painted this left-handed.
I had to paint this left-handed because I crushed my right hand.
It was pretty difficult.
Another art tip; whatever hand’s not broken is the one you paint with.
That’s right.
People that hire you - what kind of things do they hire you to paint?
What kind of jobs do you like to do?
I really love doing the mural work, but there’s only a handful of walls in Hanalei.
I’m looking for a bigger town.
Oh, I did the walls in here, but you can’t see them.
Lately I’ve been working on used surfboards, a lot of recycled stuff, backs of chairs,
old drawers from the local dump site.
Although I do quite a bit of different work.
I like to do cartooning quite a bit, with fish.
Curtis did that.
And he did this one too.
This is my favorite spot, I especially like to show this to kids because they like the
sharks.
You’re getting that depth, so it’s like you’re underwater looking up.
What are we looking at?
This is the Na Pali coast.
I wanted to get Ke’e right form the edge, where it goes towards Hanakapai, right down
the line.
You gotta check out these little guys over here, coming out of their little eggs.
This is my favorite one.
Going to work every day from my house, when I see that I go “man I’m having a great
day.”
Over a period of 12 years I’ve been doing these murals.
Now I work at Hanalei Gourmet.
That’s where I have all my artwork at the moment.
If you want to check it out come down to the Gourmet.
Thanks again for watching.
This is Patrick Ching with Art in Paradise.
We talked with Curtis Cabral.
If you want to see more of Curtis’ artwork, come to the Ching Young Village in Hanalei
or the Hanalei Gourmet, or just about any place in Hanalei, and you’ll see Curtis.
Aloha.
Alright!
It’s the enlightenment - just like a beam of sunlight coming right down on us.
How’s that?
Close enough.
Good enough for the girls I go out with.