KAILUA-KONA — Rose Adare wanted desperately to resume the life she’d previously known, to create above the white nothingness of blank canvass, but she couldn’t remember how. Even if she’d been able to recall the wealth of artistic knowledge she’d accumulated over a lifetime, it wouldn’t have mattered. She could no longer grip a paintbrush.
Adare’s reality changed in an instant in 2005 as she parallel parked her car on a sloping San Francisco street. A bus slammed into her vehicle, violently ripping from her every skill the self-sustaining artist and teacher held most dear.
Adare’s memory, like her body, was ravaged by the crash. But the bad news didn’t end there. She found out through examination that she suffered from a rare condition, one that rendered her ligaments and tendons less elastic than those of the average person.
To this day, Adare suffers from subluxation because of the combination of her condition and the severity of the crash. Her bones are constantly popping out of place, partially dislocating at the joints. Beyond that, Adare battles arthritis and consistent muscle spasms.
“Pretty much the only time I’m not in pain is when I’m painting, because it gives me the opportunity to be more than my body — to kind of go into the painting itself,” Adare said in a telephone interview from an art show in Las Vegas.
Her memory is still spotty, and teaching is an endeavor of the past. Adare, 34-years-old at the time of the crash, spent three years re-learning how to paint. She began the arduous process confined within soft body braces, drawing with a pencil taped to her finger.
She moved to the Big Island a year and a half later, taking another important step in her professional rehabilitation by participating in the first-ever Pua Na Pua Art Festival in Hilo, put on by Abled Hawaii Artists.
Adare will be part of another first on Saturday at the Keauhou Shopping Center when AHA, working in concert with nonprofit organizations Full Life and Donkey Mill Art Center, holds its inaugural Pua Na Pua Art Festival.
“The festival celebrates the abilities of artists with and without disabilities,” said Mar Ortaleza, employment specialist at Full Life and the catalyst behind the initial Hilo event nearly a decade ago. “The goal was to have a venue for artists with disabilities to explore self-employment in the arts. It’s not in the general mindset that people with disabilities can be self-employed, particularly in the arts.”
The notion to create the event was born of Ortaleza’s experience as a direct support worker with a patient who suffered from developmental and intellectual disabilities. The patient wanted to expand his hobby of underwater photography into a self-sustaining small business.
Ortaleza assisted him in the creation of his portfolio, the honing of his technique and the refinement of the artwork into a marketable business. Ultimately, the two found success. It was then Ortaleza envisioned a unique opportunity to help several others, all at the same time.
Now, with the help of Dee Ann Fujioka-Liley at Donkey Mill Art Center, Ortaleza’s vision has spread the west side of Hawaii Island.
At the first Pua Na Pua Festival in Kona, which will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and offer free admission to the public, more than 20 artists will display their work. Half of those artists, Ortaleza said, are differently abled.
Adare, who now runs her own art studio on the east side of Hawaii Island, The Muse Studio, said the value of the festival in her life has been immeasurable.
“The festival is tremendously helpful,” she said. “It let me realize I wasn’t alone, which is a huge thing in the differently-abled community. Knowing there is support, knowing there are other people who are artists and are differently abled and are doing what they love is monumental.”
The event’s landing in Kona has excited Adare enough that she will fly home from her art show in Las Vegas to attend in person. She will also serve as a guest speaker, delivering a five-minute speech to those in attendance.
“It’s super important because it’s the first time the Kona side has ever been involved,” Adare said. “There are a lot of differently-abled people on Kona side who now will have a chance to get connected with the group. They will have a chance to be seen and be heard, and that is fantastic.” ■