Involved in Art:
Laura Ruby Models Public Spirit
by Cheryl Ernst, External Affairs and University Relations

Art is far from a solitary pursuit for Laura Ruby. The Manoa art faculty member has a way of getting people involved as she undertakes public projects. Her latest endeavor: restoration of the Jean Charlot mural Night Hula, recently dedicated in its new installation in Saunders Hall. Her collaborators: members of Manoa’s Mortar Board student honorary and service organization. She also has involved classes in researching for Manoa’s self-guided art tour, "Campus Art;" creating banners hung on fences surrounding Hawai‘i Hall during its restoration, and generating temporary sculptures that will pop up on campus this semester.

"We’re identifying spaces, potential seating areas, and working with facilities to design things that lend beauty, discussion and comfort—low cost, probably short term works that add appreciably to the campus environment," Ruby explains.

Prints and sculpture

Her own artwork ranges from the whimsical to thought-provoking. Her Nancy Drew Series of screenprints—based on books about the popular sleuth—was exhibited at the Honlulu Academy of Arts and Ramsay Galleries and is now traveling on the mainland, to Texas, Iowa and Ohio. Diamond Head Series explores land, power and the clash of cultures in Hawai‘i; one print hangs in the Hawai’i State Museum’s inaugural exhibit. Among her large public sculptures are Stage Set—Mise en Scene at Honolulu CC, Cromlech at UH Hilo and Site of Passage—Chinatown in downtown Honolulu.

Experience working on that scale gave Ruby the confidence to undertake the restoration of Night Hula. Confidence was required because the mural was a shambles after falling from a wall at Kamehameha Schools and being recovered from a dumpster. "The first time I saw the mural it was a rather sad day. It was all broken pieces placed randomly in cardboard boxes," Ruby recalls. With her was Yuklin Aluli, whose family commissioned the work for its original home at the Tradewinds Hotel and later donated it to Kamehameha Schools. Aluli helped solicit financial support for the restoration. Early in the restoration process, working on a grid, Mortar Board volunteers pieced the remnants like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle and marked the chipped, missing and broken sections on a template.

Restoring Night Hula

Ruby enlisted Martha Ridgley, ceramic artist and Hawai‘i Craftsman employee, as a working partner. She also solicited advice from Jane Eckelman of Manoa Mapworks, whose giant map of Hawai‘i graces the international section of the Honolulu Airport, and Isami Enamoto of Ceramics Hawai’i, a student of Charlot’s who assisted with the original mural. Ridgley painstakingly documented the process as they experimented with epoxies, paints, glazes and techniques to replace two tiles and repair many others. (The documentation generated a Hamilton Library exhibit in January.) "When we first started placing groups of nine tiles together and saw that coloration matched and lines matched, then we that the mural was going to come together as a whole," Ruby recalls with satisfaction.

The work was done in the garage of the Charlot home, now a university property. Installation at Saunders took three days. “We met many people from the building, who came by during the installation and all had nice words for the project,”she says. “It’s gratifying to be involved in something out in the community that benefits everyone”

A book on Mo‘ili‘ili

The next community to benefit from Ruby’s talent is the Mo‘ili‘ili neighborhood makai of the Manoa campus. Ruby is working on a book with the Mo‘ili‘ili Community Center. It is targeted for publication in 2004, the 150th anniversary of construction of the community’s inaugural building, Kamo‘ili‘ili Church. The book will include oral histories, photographs and contributions from librarians, geologists, anthropologists and cultural experts. It will explore the area’s history from the church, which no longer exists, to proposals for a "college town" extension of the Manoa campus.

Putting together the Mo’ili’ili book isn’t a reach for Ruby. She studied literature as well as art (earning an MFA from Manoa) merging her talents for text and design in her “Campus Art” brochure and during her eight-year term as editor of a national journal. Count on her to continue returning art and ideas back to the community.

For more on Laura Ruby and photos of her artwork, see her page.
For more on the Night Mural restoration, see the Honolulu Advertiser article.