Hawaiian Art & Gallery A Division of Trans World Metals, Ltd
Artists Bill and Justin Armijo, both based in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, established Hawaiian Art & Gallery to provide an online showcase for Hawaii-based artists to sell their work. They were motivated by new trends and challenges impacting artists and brick and mortar galleries, including the Covid-19 crisis.
They envisioned an online gallery featuring the work of independent artists and making it available for purchase around the globe.
Our Mission
The Mission and Goal of our Gallery has been said in many ways through history, in French it is “L’ art pour l’ art”, in Latin “Ars Gratia Artis” or in English we say “Art for Art’s Sake”. Our philosophy is that the intrinsic value of Art and the only “true” Art is the pursuit of beauty without any other preoccupation or reason. Our view is that Art is the pursuit of that beauty, truth, and good for life’s sake and to further Art itself in Hawaii and the world. Our intention is for Hawaiian Art & Gallery to provide a venue and opportunity for the Artists in our Gallery to display, distribute, and share their Fine Art with those astute enough to appreciate the beauty in the Art that is offered.
Secondary Mission and Goal
The term starving artist is alive and well in the State of Hawaii. and elsewhere. We have a goal to find young Hawaiian and U.S. artists in order to mentor, develop, and help guide them in the art business for them to have a career in the World of Art and in order for them to become financially successful members of society. We look to help them out of the situation where as they are starving artists and bring them around full circle to have a well-developed career in the world of art. It will take a serious amount of time, patience, energy, and money to accomplish this. We are now in the process of providing that time, patience, and energy. We are artists and are aligned with other artists to accomplish these goals.
While high schools might very well teach art, they are barely scratching the surface of the world of art for Hawaii’s youth. They seem to only give students a brief overview by offering Art 1, or Drawing and Painting and the class is over We look to give Hawaii’s artists the capability of developing into a distinguished, competent, and confident artists. We stand ready to look to the youth of Hawaii in grade schools, intermediate schools, to high schools, and beyond to seek out and develop their raw talent and to guide them in the ways of Hawaiian culture, art and business.
Koa Woods History Grows With Our Family History In The Spirit Of Aloha!
Out of all of the Hawaiian Islands KOA grows predominantly on the Big Island. Acacia Koa is a species of flowering tree in the pea family. Fabaceae. It is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It’s name in the Hawaiian language “Koa” means brave, bold, fearless, valiant, bravery, courage. Our family history leading to today’s Solid Koa Picture frames, Honu’s (turtles), and Koa Wood products on the Big Island is a humble one. Our art history with Koa Wood in Hawaii dates back to the early 70’s on North Shore of Oahu, at the top of Pupukea Road, living across from Elvis Presley’s home where animals were sculptured from all the plants. The animal sculptures patterned after Elvis’s landscaping back then were mounted on Koa Wood bases and sold to locals and in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel Art Gallery in Honolulu.
Time passed and the new generation of our family grew up on the Big Island at the Wai Opae Tidepools in Kapoho Vacationland, at the eastern most tip of the island. Here the boys would catch bull frogs for five cents apiece, because they were singing too loud for the neighbor in his tide pool, and so they would move them away down the road in buckets to the other tide pools. This brought new meaning to Living Hawai’i and keiki’s living off the Aina. Now the business comes from another aspect of the Big Island and that change is from the water to the land that grows the Sacred Koa Wood. We only use Koa from “felled trees” and we pride ourselves in The Spirit of Aloha in everything we create. According to the old Kahuna’s (priests) being able to live the Spirit of Aloha was a way of reaching self-perfection and realization for our own body and soul. Aloha means love, compassion, kindness, and grace. It’s literal Hawaiian definition is “The presence of Divine breath”. In Hawaiian culture, the Spirit of Aloha goes well beyond a simple greeting. These insights describe an attitude or way of life sometimes called “The Spirit of Aloha” or “The Way of Aloha”. The Spirit of Aloha was an important lesson taught to our children and our children’s children, because it was about the Big Island of Hawai’i of which they were a part and was a part of their souls. Today we still look to a love of the Aina for life and in our art work with Koa we bring the fallen Koa trees back to life with our art in order to give back the love and the beauty that the Big Island has given our Ohana. Our Ohana history and tradition is to care for the sky, the ocean, and the earth which gives life. Our goal is to cherish and to protect the Big Island and provide a helping hand to this special location. This is who who we are and what we represent in creating our Koa Works of Art.
With Warmest Aloha,
Trans World Metals, Ltd.
Hawaiian Artwork Division