Hihiwai

Do you know what a hihiwai is? How about a hapawai and a pipiwai? A year ago, I wouldn't care about what they are. Not that they are uninteresting creatures, I was probably preoccupied with finishing my research and finding a real job. When I got a job with the State as an inexperienced hydrolo-lo-gist, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the streams in Hawaii. On my first field visit to Maui, I snorkled with staff from the Division of Aquatic Resources. They showed me some of the freshwater animals present in the stream - hihiwai, opae, and oopu. Shortly after the field visit, I bought the book Hawaii's Native & Exotic Freshwater Animals so I could learn more about our stream buddies. As with all things I fancy, I put pencil to paper and out came cartoon hihiwai.

Hihiwai (Neritina granosa) is a freshwater snail that lives mostly in the lower and middle reaches of Hawaii's streams. The hihiwai is amphidromous - it migrates between the ocean and the streams. When the eggs hatch in the streams, they flow downstream and spend about a year in the ocean and then they go back upstream. These animals are usually found in a single line. On my last trip to East Maui (which was last week), I saw so many hihiwai. I even got to hold one in my hands. They look so small and fragile, it is hard to believe that they can move upstream against the flow.

As part of our division's effort to increase stream awareness, my hihiwai was made into a temporary tattoo with the words "I'm a Hihiwai. Protect Our Streams." When I first distributed the tattoos at an outreach event, I was so happy to see the smiles on the keiki faces as they applied the tattoo. I also made hihiwai blank cards using my friend's gocco printer. I have never seen or heard of such a device and was very excited to use it. First, I printed a black and white hihiwai. Then, I positioned the print-out on the gocco screen, a cardboard and extra padding material on top, and then placed all these layers in a slot in the device. My friend installed two gocco light bulbs and ... a moment of slience. We were both very excited as we never used the gocco before and didn't know what was gonna happen. Then ... she pressed on the machine and POOF!!! out came a screen with the hihiwai outlines. We applied blue paint over the screen and printed over 30 cards that day. I know I haven't explained the gocco concept very clearly ... just think of it as T-shirt printing made easy.

I am currently working on cartoon versions of the oopu alamoo and the opae. I already have sketches of them, so I only need to digitize them. Should I tweak this hihiwai and create cartoon hapawai and pipiwai? I really like these snails.

Poop Obsession

My friend said I have an obsession with poop. I thought, "Na...[long pause], really?" I remember my first "successful" drawing (one that I have no shame in showing off) was of a flying poop - basically, a poop with wings; thus, angelpoo. Yeah, go figure. I was even comtemplating on tattooing myself with this flying poop. What the hell was I thinking? I don't have a digital version of the poop since the time I drew it was way back when I didn't even know how to use a computer (but way after potty training, mind you). One of these days, I will recreate it digitally and see what you guys think. So, back to the poop obsession. I didn't think I was fascinated with poop until I began looking back at my previous artwork, specifically the character that I designed for my friend's birthday this past January. You guessed it, it was poop. His name is Poki Poo, named after her dog, Poki. So, her husband called me on a bright Sunday morning (I think) and said, "Oh, sorry for the late notice but Emily's (his wife) birthday is this weekend. Would you guys join us for dinner at Mac Grill?" I was really happy that he called but dude, only one week in advance? It was a huge challenge but I decided to make my friend something because if I were to choose one person in the world who would appreciate my artwork, she was the one. So, that entire week, I drew, bought, sewed, bled, ironed, bought again, printed, glued, and wrapped. It was a totally awesome week!

Here he is, the infamous Poki Poo with similar patterns as her dog, Poki. He is a little devious looking but cute, just like Poki. I absolutely love this guy, the winking, the devious smile, and the shape of the poo. Sometimes when I draw a character, I have reservations - a feeling that something is missing. Poki Poo is perfect.

The quote "Will poop for 5 dala" is just my way of teasing Emily's hubby. He is Chinese and he somehow truly believes that anything around $5 is considered cheap and worth buying. I love shopping with him because he cracks me up.

So, here's how I battled my one-week-homemade-gift challenge. I bought a large and a small natural-colored canvas bag. The small one is for miscellanous stuff (e.g. notepads, chapstick, pen, etc...). I used felt to make a large and small Poki Poo. The eyes and the mouth took the longest as they were sewn on instead of simply using black felt. I sewed these guys on the canvas bags, then attached the iron-on felt letters. I also made Poki Poo notepads and chapstick.

Then I stuck all these in a flat box, tied a red ribbon (recycled from a previous gift), and pinned a mini Poki Poo stuffed animal on the ribbon. I really hope my friend still uses this bag.

Happy Halloween

To celebrate this year's Halloween, I created three spooky characters. These are to accompany my muffin trios for the bake sale at Kapiolani Hospital. My first character is "Gangsta Chip" and he represents the brownie muffin. He is a mischievous little chocolate chip that uses threat to get what he wants. He is really not that mean spirited. Afterall, he is only a little devilish kid. The second character is "Nutty Doctor" and he represents the my delicious banana muffin. This guy is a little lolo because he lost his brain. Well, that's also why he has all those wounds on his body. The third character is the lovely "Grandma Booberry" and she represents my blueberry cornmeal muffin. She is a scary grandma who appears to love all kids, and loved by all the neighbors. But once you are in her house, be careful what you eat.

I wanted people to know what muffins are in the package so I made this little card to accompany the package. It worked out really good because the quotes give personality to the otherwise meaningless spooky characters.

First, I printed out mini versions of the characters and cut them out. Then, I used glue gun to attach a toothpick in the back, reenforced with torn out black construction paper. The torn out edges give the backing a rough look. These animated toothpicks were inserted into the muffins. Here are my brownie muffins with Gangsta Chip smiling on every one of them.

Grandma Booberry and her blueberry cornmeal muffins. I have never baked with cornmeal before so I was excited to see how they would turn out. With the extra blueberries and cane sugar, these babies tasted pretty good.

Here's Nutty Doctor going lolo with the banana muffins. I love these the most because when they came out of the oven, the smell of sweet bananas filled the kitchen. They were moist and nutty, perfectly baked. When the muffins were cooling down, I made little baggies to package the muffins. The baggies were first lined with shredded orange paper. Then I sprinkled halloween-themed confetti (ghosts, bats and silver moon) on the sides. When the muffins were completely cooled, I carefully arranged them in the baggie. Closed the top with a twisty tie and taped the information card over the tie. I put an orange backing to the info card to give it some color.

Ta da! I made a total of 11 (instead of 12) muffin packages. I had to taste one of each muffin to make sure they tasted ok. I have to admit, when I was preparing all the artwork for this package, I was a little disappointed at the fact that most of these decorations would end up in the trash anyway. So, why spend so much time? Then when I saw the finished product, the feeling of satisfaction and completeness could not be achieved otherwise. It was a lot of work - the cutting, tearing, gluing, baking, and getting my hands burned. But, I was happy, much happier than someone giving me one of these. My artwork was enjoyed by someone - either it be 1 minute or a full day - he bought it for a reason, it was because he loved my creation. That was enough for me.