 I'm Jay Fiedel and I really love doing this stuff. Community Matters, today with Patrice Paterspiel, she's an artist, and we're going to explore her art. Welcome to the show, Patrice. Thank you, Jay. I'm really happy to be here. Great to have you. So the first thing we want to do is we want to announce the news. We always look for the news, the hot stuff, and you have some hot stuff this very week, don't you? I do. I'm really excited. I have an exhibit right now up at Still and Moving Center, which is on Queen Street, kind of across from the new parking lot for the new Whole Foods that isn't open yet. The parking lot is open, so that's a good thing. The Still and Moving Center is celebrating their seventh birthday, and so they asked me to exhibit some of my work there. And the party is from five to seven on Sunday night. Of course, it's an art opening. It's an art opening and a birthday celebration, yes. Everybody comes kind of decked out to talk about art, and of course, there's some wine and cheese and crap, am I right? I think so, and there's also going to be dancing. So there will be hula dancing and belly dancing, different kinds of exhibits going on all at once. What kind of crowd do you expect? A big one, an energetic one. Where can I park? Right across the street, on Queen Street, the new public parking for the Whole Foods is open, and it's free. And it's free, all right. Yeah. Okay, what a perfect location. I know. Have they been having art exhibits in this venue before? No, this is kind of a first for them, I think. They've been doing, they do a lot of different movement classes for all different ages. They have aerial yoga, yoga, Nia, belly dancing, Feldenkrais, lomi lomi massage, hula. And everything having to do with creativity, I think. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, what sort of, this is your exhibit only, and what are you going to be exhibiting everything you ever did now? No. You did too much for that. Yes. No, I'm pretty prolific. I picked out the best of what I still have in my collection at home. So there are a few originals. There's an original tree spirit and an original, one of my palm frond women. And several large g-clays on canvas. So. Now, we have some photos of pictures that you have done. Are any of the pictures we're about to see going to be in this show? Yes. Well, some of them, the tree divas are there. The tree spirits are both there that you'll see. Okay, let's see some photos. This is Patrice Feiderspiel, Thater Spiels, you know. And we're going to see some of her work right now, some of which will be exhibited at the still and moving center venue on Queen Street on Sunday at her show. A one man. Woman? Can I say that? Show. Okay. Tell us about the turtles and everything. This is called At the Turtle Cleaning Station. And this piece is at the exhibit. It's in a 16 by 20 canvas g-clay. The original was sold. But here you can see what happens in the islands and where the turtles go down and the fish clean off all the algae off the turtle. And then they go back up to the surface. Okay. And they take turns. Okay, well, let's go back to that for a minute. Now, look past out to me. What's the material you're using? What's your media? No, I'm a watercolor artist. Watercolor? So this is all watercolor. Okay. And you like scenes that are local. These are Hawaii scenes once you paint. Yes, yes, mostly. So everything we're going to see has some local connection. So what's the message here with the turtles? What are you trying to tell us with the turtles? Well, actually it's a little bit of an educational piece because I do, the visitors are a big part of my market. And everybody loves the turtles. I love the turtles. Yeah. And we're not supposed to touch. But the back of all my work, I have information. Oh, you do? So I'm always trying to help. I'm a teacher by heart also. And so I'm always educating people about the turtles or about life in the islands. We don't have mermaids, but I like to show those. Maybe we do have mermaids. Yeah, we do. It says there's a mermaid in Hawaii. That's right. That's right. And I'm looking at some postcards you gave me and say to Patrice, oh, Patrice, and we know now, we know your secret, Fadersfield, painting the essence of living aloha. Right. This is telling us something about you. And then your website name is artofaloha.com and essentially say free twice monthly e-inspiration. What does that mean? Well, I send out a newsletter. It's supposed to go out twice a month. It rarely goes out more than that. It sometimes only goes out once a month depending on how much time I have. But I'm encouraging kind of more like cleaner, healthier thought patterns in people and also creativity, trying to really spark people's imagination and get them to thinking about life in different ways and be inspired. Yeah. You know, you exude that. Patrice. Oh, thank you. You do. You exude the, you know, I've never met an artist I didn't like, honestly. And then you say grounded yet growing. That's the title of that image. Ah, this one. Let me show it and see if our staff can catch it. This is, what is this called now? It's called grounded yet growing. Grounded yet growing. Okay. And it's a woman. Yeah. It's one of my tree spirits. Yeah. Can you come in on this, please? All right. Let me see if I can get that better. Yeah. Okay. That's really beautiful. Thank you. And it's the same sort of... I say pastel. I mean, I know it's watercolor, but it's pastel watercolor. You also gave me one with a turtle and a seal together. Yes. Which I really like very much. This one. Let's see if I can get it around. I'm coming on this a little bit. It's got a reflection on it, so it's a little hard. That one was inspired a little bit by Kaimana's birth down in Waikiki this summer. She was such a star. Yeah. Well, this is also beautiful. And it's so Hawaii. But I told you before, it reminds me of the Oklahoma song, the ranchers. Can the ranchers and farmers be friends? Here's a turtle and a seal. They have something going. They do. They're friendly, yes. They're eyeballing each other right on the beach. And I love the way you do the waves. Waves are so important to an artist. You express your view of the ocean, of the environment by the way you do the waves. How long does it take you to do one of these watercolors? Everybody asks that question, and the answer is so variable. I mean, it's very rare that I do a painting in one or two sittings. I'm kind of a slow painter. I start out really, really fast, especially when I'm excited and have a great idea. I just can't wait to get—sometimes I start too fast. And then I just slow down, and they take however long they take. It depends on the size, the complexity, my mood, all kinds of things. Do you have a studio? I do. It's very much a working studio, not a showcase studio, but I do have a studio in town. And from what size to what size do you paint? I mean, what's your favorite size? Gosh, I like to paint big. Generally, I don't do much smaller than seven, eight by eleven or something. But the biggest one I've ever done was about four feet square. And that's over on the Big Island, at Tiffany's Art Agency, up in Javi. Oh, no, I know Javi very well. Yeah. Oh, that's perfect for Javi. He has all those rich colors there. It's the perfect place for your art, I think. Let's go look at some more of your art, and try to examine another. Now we're on the mermaid theme, because the mermaid theme pervades your work, it seems like. I do have a lot of mermaids. They began because one of the galleries I was in wanted to have a mermaid exhibit, and I kind of really didn't want to do mermaids. My husband will tell you he warned me not to do mermaids. But I fell in love with painting mermaids, and so I've just continued, and they've been a lot of fun. What is it about mermaids? I think it's the figure, more than anything, and the movement. I really like to show the movement of the hands, and just the tail of the mermaid, the hair. Well, you know, the name of the gallery, then, on Sunday, is extremely irrelevant. It's true. Because you're talking about still, but also with the dynamic, still and moving, is it? Uh-huh. And so you're really trying to achieve the reaction and the viewer of movement, but although watercolor is going to be still, no? It's kind of like about being still at your center, no matter what's going on around you. And life is all about moving, movement and growth, I think. Yeah. That's what you said on this. Grounded yet growing. Yeah, grounded yet growing, yeah, artofaloha.com. Yeah. Okay, let's go back to the mermaid for a minute. I'd like to look at some of the water features that now. Now you have a kind of rainbow in the water. Is that, are we looking up into, you know, over the top of the water? What is that about? I don't like to overthink that, you know, I mean, no, no, no, no, really. I think a good painting leaves something to the viewer's imagination. So you get to decide if that's a reflection onto the water. You know, it's called rainbow mermaids. They're swimming under a rainbow. So the rainbow, yeah, or over, whatever. Yeah. Now they're holding hands. They're friends. This is sort of like farmers and ranchers will be friends. This is the seal and the turtle. Right. Why are they holding hands? What is it about mermaids that want, that want to touch each other? Well, what is it about any of us that want to touch each other? Okay, there you go. There you go. Yeah. It's humanity. The mermaids are a kind of icon for people, aren't they? Yeah. Well, they are people. Yeah. Yeah. And those colors you choose, those colors are, they're beautiful watercolor colors, but you seem to have a lexicon of colors and the colors are all, they're all natural Hawaii colors. They're real. They're bright. Yeah. You know, we have such wonderful color here and I just try to keep it alive in my paintings. Yeah. So I wish I had brought my palette with me because it's all bright colors. Yeah. Okay. Let's go to the next one now. I'm so excited about this. All right. So we have real green here and we have a head of hair that I'd like to have. So what about this? This is a mermaid. This is called release your inner mermaid. So she's ready, you know, just be free. What is so freedom? She's pretty. Well, and it's also, I've spoken to a lot of people who say when I'm in the ocean I feel like a mermaid, mostly women, but you know, and it's fun. It's fun to just, you know, pretend, which I really think we all need to have a little bit more active of a pretend life, even as we grow up, you know, she's, I have to ask you a question. Okay. Are you in your mind's eye? Are you when you go to the ocean and float on the water? Oh, yeah. Are you a mermaid? I am. And I'm calling to the, to the dolphins and to the fish, you know, and I'm just, you know, moving my arms and I'm just being part of it. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's go to the next one. Get better and better. I think. All right. What's though? This is another mermaid now. This is a full face. This is the tree diva. So we have amazing sculptural trees here in the islands. And so I, I can hardly drive down the streets without seeing a figure there or a figure there. In the tree. Yeah. I see a mermaid in the tree. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. She can be a mermaid in the tree. It's the same, you know, it's the figure in the tree, the movement. You know, there's, there's a classical quality about the benign, you know, loving look on her face as on the mermaids that you just showed us. And I suppose you're trying to achieve that. What is the ideal mermaid or tree person? What is that? What are you trying to portray for us? That's a really good question. I think that the internal happiness, internal peace, being, if we can achieve happiness with ourselves, then we can share that. And if we're not happy with ourselves, we share that. Yeah. Yeah. Reaching out and commuting again with nature and with yourself. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's visible. Okay. Let's go to the next one. We're going to run out in a minute. Okay. Another tree person. Yes. She is a masterry and mystery. So she has roots. She is the first tree spirit that I have painted that actually had roots. And that is the part that signifies the mastery. The mystery is still all swirling around her. And what are those things in the sky? Those are butterflies. Butterflies are a signature of mastery to me. They have come out of the cocoon and they have achieved their highest potential. And the sky is reminiscent of a French abstractionist. I, I can't remember who that might be, but it reminds me of one of the late 19th century French abstractionists, Impressionists. Thank you. And so I, you know, I wanted to ask you a question. I asked you before the show, namely what's the dynamic of your painting career, I mean, you know, you've changed. It strikes me that just a Gestalt recollection from before, you were perhaps a little more realistic. Now you're a lot more abstract, am I right? Yes. And how did that happen? I think it just, it kind of just evolved. It wasn't a conscious thing, oh, I think I'll try abstraction. It just, I woke up one day and wanted to do one. But it's, it's a little bit, you're right, it's a little bit about leaving more to the imagination for other people to find. And that's one of the things I love about abstraction. And then one of the ways to ruin an abstraction is to point out too many things. Right, I got it. I got it. It's in the eye of the beholder. Exactly. Why do I think of Chagall, or who was, who was the artist from Spain? Well, there's lots, but Dolly going, yeah, Dolly. Yeah. I mean, it's the eye of the beholder. Yes. And you're giving me room and, and you have to, you have to back off to do that. Right. You can't tell me too much. I have to stop painting. I have to stop, yeah. And that can be hard. It'd be hard and you have to be confident that you're at a point now where you can stop. Right. And then leave it to me. Right. And you're respecting the viewer. Exactly. You're respecting my ability to see something in it, which may not be exactly what you see. And that's okay. It's okay. You're commuting at a very, you know, high level. Right. Exactly. So let's commute for a minute and take a break. Okay. When we come back, I want to talk some more about this, and I also want to talk about the cruise. Oh, yes. You're going to see what I mean. This is really interesting. The cruise will be right back. For every game day, a sign had designated driver. As I mentioned before, I really love doing this here on Think Tank. I'm Jay Fidel, and today it's community matters. Why? Because community matters. That's why. Double on time. Okay. And we have an artist among us, and I never met an artist I didn't like, Patrice Ferrispio, who is a local artist who paints local scenes with local colors and local concepts and local things to relate to. That's why she calls her site and her work and her gallery, so to speak, artovoloja.com. It's a perfect name for you, I think. Thank you. We've been looking at her paintings, and we've been trying to get the track, the dynamic of her development as an artist, you know. I mean, did you go to art school? Take a PhD? Why? We have a BS in art education. Okay, all right. Art education is not exactly the same thing. No, no. But it gives you depth to know those things. And we know that you started out more realistically, and I guess you were always into, we would call it, the outdoors, relating to nature somehow. And now we've seen some of your work, so we know that you're more abstract than pure realistic. But the question I would like to put to you, Patrice, is where is it all going? Because you're a young person, you're very vital, you have years to go of your artistic development, perception of the universe. Where do you think? I know this is a hard one, and if you want to say I can't answer that, it's okay. Where do you think it's going to go? I honestly, I don't honestly know. And I'm excited to not know. Because that's— And you're in such bliss. Yeah. It's kind of—I'm waiting to see. It's always—that's part of the mystery. So I can achieve a certain amount of mastery, but then there's going to be more mystery and then more to grow into, and more to evolve, and more to find out. It's part of the discovery. Yeah. And the discovery has so many—like life itself, may I say. Yeah. The discovery has so many factors working, and you don't know which one will be the heavy one or the light one. For example, your own life, your relationships with others, family, what have you, your—the things that happen to you, your art itself feeds back to you, right? It does. And so you're actually talking to your art, and it will tell you. Exactly. You will find out. Exactly. I think it's— You have to be open for the mystery and the miracles. And that makes it so much more interesting. It does. I can hardly wait till our next discussion. Yeah, me too. Do we have any more art to show? Because if not, we're going to go and talk about the crews. Let's see. Okay, let's talk about this one. It's obviously a flower. The Plumeria. This is called a fresh perspective. And the title has to do with the fact that the Plumeria kind of grow in clumps that are more rounded rectangles. And I decided to do a tall, skinny perspective on it. And it's good to change our perspective. Why tall? Because opposed to the other shapes you were talking about a minute ago? It shifts the way you think about it, and it gives you a different place. You can put it in your home, too. Did you think of tall before you thought of Plumeria? Or did you think of Plumeria and fresh before you thought of tall? I think it was tall first, and Plumeria second. You filled that box. Yeah. And why Plumeria? Why does Plumeria mean fresh to you? Well, they're only last day, so they're only going to be fresh for a day. So they're here and gone. Yeah. And it's the same watercolor, you know, pastel. That one is a little more on the realistic side. It is, yeah. You can really tell what everything is. You know exactly what it is going to be. That would be a great design piece for anybody's home, I think. Okay. Have we got any more? Is that the last one? No, that's not the last one. I know there's more. Ah! Now we're talking abstract. Yes, we are. We're going to write into it. What is this, Patrice? It's a collection. And I think the idea for this came to me when I was on a walk down near the Kimana Beach. And the leaves were kind of going in an eddy and a little, you know, spiral. And I liked the colors, the browns and the yellows, and where I saw the blues. But I imagine the blues, I guess. And so I just created this. And this is a really fun piece. It's up at Still in Moving Center. And this is the direction it's hung in at the exhibit, but when it's at our house, we often turn it. You can turn this in four different directions. Oh, sure. And you'll see different things. To refresh the whole thing. You do. Some of winter, spring, fall, whatnot. It's amazing the number of different animals and creatures to be found in here once you start looking there everywhere. So it was titled Creation long before I knew they were there. And now you look at your own work and you find things in your own work that you did not intend, but that are somehow there. Which I'm so glad I stopped when I did. Yeah, right, right, right. What do you see? You see, tell me where a creature is. I can see a creature in the top right, the top right area. What is that creature? I think of it as a donkey. A donkey. I do. All right. There's a cougar. There's an owl. There's an ape. There's a fish. There's actually almost like a Chewbacca creature from the other direction, so it's really fun. I love this. You know when I was a kid, there was always a picture on the back of the New York Times magazine, an art picture, and it says, can you find the Indians? Right. And you remember this? And if you look carefully, it's this penning drawing and you had to count them. Right. So it's the same thing here. It is. You had to count all the things that are in this painting. Probably not. And if you turned it around, you'd find more. So it demonstrates the color again. You know, these are signature colors for you. Clearly you're evolving into those, the browns and the yellows and the blues. And it's really, it's very calming. It would go really with anything, so it's always going to be harmonious with the environment. Is that the last one? I think we have another one, yeah? Yes. And it would be another flower, another abstract, ah, there it is, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what is that now, Patrice? So this is a little bit more of an abstract. This one's called merging, emerging, and it's, it's at least two hibiscus, and we can't tell where one begins and the other one ends. No, you can't. Maybe you're not supposed to. Well, you're sharing some puddles, I think. Yeah, yeah. And this is now, this is clearly a different, different color pattern. It is. This is brighter reds and more luxurious greens. I use the same palette, so it's just dependent upon which colors are going in the painting. When you say a palette, what is a palette like for a watercolor artist? What is it? I'm sorry we don't have one here. I know, I wish I had brought it. Give us a word picture. Um, it's, mine is, is, um, mostly it's, it's square, but it has a circle in the middle, um, and the colors are going around it, uh, there are warm colors on one side of the palette, cool colors on the other side of the palette, and then there's a big mixing area in the middle, so that I can mix colors there. I do a lot of mixing on the paper, but if I want to, I can mix it in the palette. So, um, in watercolor and in your work, do you draw it on the paper first, do you sketch it out, you know, with the paint or with a pencil, um, or, or do you just have it in your mind and, and bingo, paint it? It depends on the piece, um, the creation piece, I didn't sketch out, uh, almost all of the other ones, I'll do a little bit of drawing for it, the miss, mastery and mystery piece I started to draw with my eyes closed, because I wanted to get the feeling that I had in my mind's eye, and sometimes I might have even started with my non-dominant hand, just trying to get, because it's freer than my dominant hand. Interacting with the media, letting it flow. My favorite one, by the way, is the, is that one where you can turn it on the side of it. Yeah, creation. That's my favorite one by far. Thank you. I'm sorry. That's okay. I don't want to take, I don't want to take my, so, um, when you paint, do you need window light? How do you get the light on the, uh, it's not canvas, it's paper, yeah? It's paper. You can paint on other substrates nowadays, but I primarily use paper. I do have light in my studio, window light in my studio, and I do a lot of painting outside, so I'll start all my paintings in the studio because I start flat, and then I do most of the painting upright on the easel out in public. The first iteration is flat. Right. That's so interesting. Why is that? Because I'm working so wet on wet. The paper is wet. And you want it to drip. Right. Yeah. It's a special medium. Gravity. Yeah. You get to be an expert in watercolor, and then you stay in watercolor. It's fun. It's, um, I've had a lot of oil painters tell me that it's intimidating, they're afraid to do it, and I was afraid to do it in the beginning, too, um, but it's a lot of fun. What's intimidating about it? They say that you can't make mistakes, that you can't erase, none of which is true, um, but they don't know how to do it, so, and it also, it's the reverse. So oil painting and acrylics start with dark colors first and go lighter, and with watercolors we generally start with our light colors and go darker, so it's a kind of reverse thinking. Yeah, and people think of watercolors as, as very light, even, even transparent or translucent, but that's not necessarily the case. You can achieve a pretty dark watercolor if you want, can't you? You can. And how do you do that? Well, it depends on, uh, how much water you're using, and what colors you're using, really. Yeah. Oh, interesting. I'm going to take some video of you painting, you know, a time-lapse video. I'd like that, too. Yeah, that'd be fun. So, let's, let's, uh, let's cut to the, uh, the cruise. Yes. What's its looks with a cruise? I never heard of such a thing. What are you doing? Well, it's a, it's called Discovering Paradise Inside and Out. It's the, the Pride of America, seven-day, eight-night cruise through the Hawaiian Islands. It starts August 4th from Oahu, goes to Maui for two nights. Then we'll go to the Big Island for two nights. Then we go up to Kauai for two nights, and then we come back to Oahu. Who's we? We. The whole cruise ship. Really? And whoever's coming with me. A thousand people. Yeah. Well, I'm doing a special little art program for anyone interested. You don't have to be an artist. You don't have to want to be an artist. You really just have to want to have fun and to be open to seeing the world through art eyes, creative eyes. Yes. Yes. We have, we have like two minds. We have a creative mind, and we have a competitive or analytical mind. Right brain, left brain. Right. And everybody has that. We all have it. Yeah. And I just like to remember to use my creative mind a little more often. And I think it would do us all a little bit of good. Yes. I agree. You all should do that. So if I'm on the cruise now, and I'm out there, because you know, people don't take cruises. Most people have never taken a cruise. They have never felt, you know, the experience of being on a cruise ship, which is really as big as it is. It's tiny in the ocean, in the universe, with the sky, and the horizon so far away. So what happens? You stand on the fan tail of the ship, and you look at the ocean, and you tell people, gee, why don't you focus on this? And see the colors, and see the dynamic of the waves? What do you tell them? Well, I'm sure we can do some of that. The cruise ship is like a little island of its own, really. There's so many different things to do on the cruise. And there will be a class on the cruise. One of the students coming along with me lives here on the islands, and she said she's done the cruise four or five times. And she said you just cannot see any more breathtaking view of each of the islands than when you're sailing into and out of port. So there will be times for sketching both on the ship and off the ship, because really most of the sailing is done at night when you're sleeping, or out and about and playing at the clubs or whatever on the ship. And then during the day, you're free to explore, and our islands offer so many different things. Each island is so different. And you will be their lens. You will talk to them. You will talk to you. And they will see it through your eyes and their eyes, so you'll show them how to do that. One thing you said, and I want to capitalize that in the last minute or two of our discussion, is that you don't have to be an artist to take this cruise. But isn't it true, Patrice, Fiderspiel, Fiderspiel, isn't it true that everybody is an artist? It is true. It is true. On one level or another, and in one subject or another. Yeah. So how do I find myself? Well, I think you find yourself when you find what really makes your heart sing. And I think doing these kind of talk shows does that for you. It does. And I'm sure there are a lot of other things, too. But those are the moments that we need to pay attention. Where do you feel the best? Where do you feel the most energy? Where do you feel the most alive? That's where you want to put your focus on. It's so busy focusing on all the things we don't want. And if we can learn to focus on the things that really mean something to us, there. Yeah. That's our pot of gold. It's all good. Yeah. It's a better life. Yeah. So good for you, Patrice. Thank you so much. So nice. Thank you for coming around. Thank you for inviting me. Good. I look forward to it.