ABOVE: “My hope is to inspire and inform through the work I do,” says Solmon Enos, the artist in residence at the Capitol Modern. “My open studio is a living installation where I get to share this passion with kamaaina and visitors alike.”
Walk into Capitol Modern on any given morning, hang a sharp left and you'll encounter one of Hawaii's premier artists, Solomon Enos, working away in a walk-in closet. Well, actually, the closet-size space is the former telephone room of the historic No. 1 Capitol District Building, the walls of which Enos, the museum's artist in residence, has transformed into a blue sky-scape. He calls this his noa (open) studio: a space in the clouds to make art while he waits for visitors. "Whenever I hear someone coming, I pop out of this little sub-dimension, and we have conversations," he says with his ever-present grin. "Then I go right back to whatever I happen to be working on."
A few of Enos’ works in progress, many of which blend sci-fi and fantasy themes with Native Hawaiian moolelo (stories).
Capitol Modern's artist in residence is a volunteer position, which gives Enos the freedom to come and go. Most days he arrives at 9 and leaves at noon, walking the forty-five minutes from and back to his kapu (closed) home studio, where he continues working. And he's got plenty of work to do: In recent months, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Enos has been retracing Robert Louis Stevenson's travels through Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti and Scotland as part of his graphic novel adaptations of Stevenson's stories reimagined from an Indigenous perspective. Enos recently visited the Marshall Islands on commission from a UK-based environmental organization, where he joined Marshallese poets and artists in visiting and making art about sites impacted by nuclear testing and climate change. He's also involved in discussions surrounding how Capitol Modern (the recently rebranded Hawaii State Art Museum) will take part in the upcoming Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture—this June, Hawaii will for the first time host the quadrennial gathering of artists and performers from throughout Oceania.
In addition to his usual morning hours, Enos is also typically on hand for special events at Capitol Modern, which include the monthly First Friday and The Vibe nights, where he chats up spectators while doing live paintings. "Being Native Hawaiian, I help bridge the gap between our traditional stories and the museum's contemporary art from all over the world," he says. "It really goes in line with the mission here, which is not only to allow the community free access to great art but also to inspire folks to pick up a brush, pick up some pastels, pick up some clay and find the artist within."
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