KEAUHOU — Kona Community Hospital Auxiliary’s second Art at the Pavilion event is Saturday in Keauhou.
Featuring works by more than three dozen new and emerging Big Island artists, the event runs 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kona Convention Center at Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa at Keauhou Bay. Artwork will be for sale, as well as food and gift items. A silent auction is also planned. Entertainment will be provided by Peter Weinstock on keyboard.
Admission is $5, and children younger than 12 enter free. Each entry ticket provides a chance to win prizes, as well as vote for the best in show artist.
A benefit for the Kona Community Hospital Auxiliary, Art at the Pavilion hopes to raise enough funds to purchase a vein finder for the Kealakekua-based hospital’s intensive care unit, or ICU, as well as fund nursing scholarships. With last year’s money raised, the auxiliary purchased four baby bassinets and put $500 toward scholarships.
The $6,000 piece of equipment, which would be used on adults and keiki, illuminates a patient’s arm, making it easier to find a difficult vein. Not only can it make the process more efficient for staff, it can also save the patient some pain.
“If you’ve ever had somebody try to stab your arm three or four times to find a vein it becomes torture after a while,” said Dee Faessler, a KCHA board member and co-chair of Art at the Pavilion.
During Saturday’s event, auxiliary volunteers will offer a variety of baked goods and items from the hospital’s gift shop. All monies raised from entry and artists space/booth fees, and sales, will go toward purchasing the piece of equipment the hospital does not yet have at its disposal.
“The Art at the Pavilion event has created a good opportunity to raise funds for small pieces of equipment that departments would otherwise not be able to afford — and this vein finder is a perfect example,” said Judy Donovan, the hospital’s spokeswoman and liaison to the Kona Community Hospital Auxiliary, a nonprofit 501(c)(3). “First of all, it’s a fun event and it is really good at helping with the smaller pieces of equipment that just don’t hit the radar.”
One of the more than three dozen artists participating this year is Jeannie Garcia, an oil painter known for her small landscape paintings using a different color palette than what’s common for Hawaii artwork.
“People talk about my color palette a lot,” she said. “People from the mainland love to buy it because it’s not that typical stronger tropical color palate.”
Most of her work is commissioned and completed on 6-by-8-inch canvas, though she has started doing some larger pieces. Her favorite places to paint are Kekaha Kai State Park and Honokohau Harbor in North Kona.
“I’ve sold a lot of paintings from those places,” she Garcia, who recently mailed out her 100th piece of artwork, and only does originals. Her work can be seen on her website at www.jeanniegarcia.com or around town at places like Daylight Mind Coffee Co. and Island Lava Java on Alii Drive.
Saturday will be her second time taking part in the Art at the Pavilion. During the inaugural 2015 event, she earned third place for People’s Choice, sold two pieces and was able to donate money to the auxiliary.
“It’s just a great way to be seen and I can help them a little,” she said.
Artist Robert “Bob” Smith will show his luminescent copper fish during the event. Sculpting since 1970, Smith says he has carved “everything from rock to milo wood, monkey pod, koa and sandal wood.”
The Kona resident currently works with copper, using a machine he fashioned called an “air gun” to cut, shape and embellish honu, ulua, marlin among other creatures like trout and halibut. He then uses oil painted with items like feathers found in his yard, and heat to transform the plain copper to bring forth a series of golds, oranges, pinks, purples, blues and greens.
“This event’s really got me moving to make more stuff,” Smith said, including schools of tuna and mempachi. Smith’s work is mostly done on commission, however, it can be found at Jguires in the Kona Inn Shopping Village.
To make getting to and from the event easier, Faessler said Roberts Hawaii will provide a 24-seat air conditioned van and a trolley. Cost to ride is $2. The trolley will make its normal stops along Alii Drive, while the van will stop at various hotels between Kailua Village and Keauhou.
Can’t make it to the event, but still want to contribute to purchasing a vein finder for the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit? Visit www.kchauxiliary.org or email KCHAuxiliary@hotmail.com.
Info: http://kchauxiliary.org. ■