Poi Dog Surf Art with Kamea Hadar

You’ve moved around a lot in your life, lived in a lot of different places. How has your background influenced your work?

Every artist draws inspiration from the things around them – the people they know, their family, the places they live. So, having a really rich and varied upbringing and life will only further enrichen your life and your art. For me, moving around, I think it gives me more imagery, points of views, more culture that I can draw from. Also, growing up in Hawaii, there there’s every culture and creed here, and there’s a lot to get inspired from.

I’ve read the world “hybrid” referenced a lot to describe your identity and your work. Can you explain that?

Going back to the multicultural thing, when we were growing up, we described ourselves as a “poi dog.” That’s Hawaiian slang for a mutt. We were like, "Oh yeah, I’m a poi dog. I’m mixed.” I always felt like that had a negative connotation, so I would always say, “I’m not a poi dog; I’m a hybrid.” When I think about my art, I think about different things to make the outcome better than the sum of its parts. I have my background growing up in Hawaii, my dad being from Europe, and you combine them all together, and make something even more interesting.

For me, when I say my work is a “hybrid” it’s an attempt to combine the old and new. I want it to be rooted in history, but also being relatable to the contemporary culture and people. A mural for example – that’s an age-old artform. Then, street art, in the last 10 years has had a crazy resurgence. So, to infuse the historical references into some would say modern artform.

Stylistically, how would you describe your work?

It’s rooted in realism. I’m hesitant to call it photo realistic. That’s a cut above what I do. There’s artists whose work you can’t even tell it’s a painting. I’m impressed by those guys. Subject-wise, the human form is a big part of my work. Portraits, people, faces, eyes, hands…things like that are always a big part of my work. Flora and fauna, too. The mural I just finished two weeks ago is the tallest mural in Hawaii history, and also top-five tallest in the country. It’s a big Ewa bird.

How about that Hawaii’s tallest mural? What was that like?

Your heart and your guts, when you hit certain heights, your body just feels…different. It was funny because I was working alongside construction workers. And they thought it was hilarious because they live up there, they have lunch with their feet hanging over the edge…like that classic image of the workers in New York, sitting way up on the metal beam, eating over that massive ledge. You have to get in the zone when conditions aren’t optimal. It’s quite the opposite of painting in an air-conditioned studio.

What was the vision in curating the work for the Hyatt?

I talked to a lot of the Hyatt staff about what we wanted to showcase. We have a Hawaiian goddess as the centerpiece – on one side there’s land, and on the other there’s sea. Then, there’s those Pipeline waves. The wave pieces take me back to all my notebooks as a kid. I would just draw waves endlessly in school. I think most surfers do. Every surfer knows that drawing. If you look at every kid’s notebook in high school, who’s bored out of his mind, and just wants to go surfing, that’s what they’re doing. And that’s an extension of me into my 40s. I’m just a big kid.

How’s your surfing life looking these days?

It’s pretty pathetic. [Laughs.] You actually caught me on a day when I surfed yesterday, which felt pretty good. And I surfed half-decent. Not that I’m any good. Because when you live in Hawaii, the level of surfing is just ridiculous. Average surfers, like me, are very humble, because you paddle out and some kid is doing helicopters above you. You’re just like…okay. [Laughs.] It’s harder and harder to get in the water with having kids, and my work life. But here’s the thing, when I have downtime, I don’t golf. I surf.

When I have jobs working at the Hyatt, when I have days when I finish early and there’s still daylight, I can run across the street and jump in the water. There’s a vibe and an energy in this area.