 Aloha, and we are here at Poe Gallery to meet my darling, dear friend, Sandy Poe. Aloha Sandy. Hi. It's so fun to see you again. Tell us about the gallery, about how long have you been here in the gallery, in total galleries? In this neighborhood, I've been in maybe about 15 years. I was in Fort Street, Moss, Smith Street, Nuanu, and now I'm on Bethel Street. I love it. Every time I've moved, I've moved to a better location, so I'm really happy. Now, tell us, the name is Lewis Poe. So who was Lewis Poe? Well, Lewis was my second husband. I was his second wife. So we learned from each, you know, we learned from our first marriage. So it was a really good marriage. Lewis came to Hawaii in 1942. It was at the start of World War II. He told his, the recruiting officer that he was a painter. And so they shipped him over to Hawaii, and he painted ships, you know, he refurbished the ships. I don't think that's quite the word, but anyway, that's what he did for a living until he got medically discharged. The first chance he got to come back to Hawaii, he grabbed, and it was to start the Honolulu Art Academy Art School in 1945. He and his friends started it. And so they taught a lot of artists, well-known artists in Hawaii. And they kind of were, he and his friend were kind of the, put a stamp, their stamp on the measure of what Hawaii art is all about today. Yeah, because they were at the Art Academy for 35 years. So that's a really long time of just teaching and influencing people to do art. He thought that everybody could do art. Everybody was creative. And that Hawaii had the best artists ever, you know, nationwide. Because we're influenced by the world. And so the artwork reflects that. Yeah. So can we walk over here real quick and just take a look? This is Louis. That correct? Yeah. He was a pretty cool guy. Yeah. Yeah. So he went down to his studio every single day to paint. And it was kind of nice because like, you know, he could go in his shorts, you know, and paint. So he painted every day. He painted, he had at least five oils going at a time. And he did watercolors. He didn't do acrylics. He did a lot of printmaking. He was a printmaker. That was his favorite thing to do. And that's pretty much what he's famous for. So you have been, you're the widow. And so you've carried on all of these years? Yeah. Right. In 1999. So 18 years, he's been gone. And so he wanted to be world famous. And so my mission, since he's been gone, is to try and see how I can promote that so that he could actually be among the greats of American art. So we have lots of artists from lots of different places. So all of these are different artists? So we represent about 10 different artists. They all live in Hawaii. They have to live in Hawaii to be eligible to show in the gallery. And so this is oils, watercolors, acrylics, printmaking. I, Louis liked art and he absolutely loved abstract art, really good abstract art. So that's what we kind of, we try to represent here. Now, real quick, tell us about you, the Arts District Merchants Association and all of the other things you've done since you've been in Chinatown. Oh my God, in the last 15 years we've been, we've done a lot of street festivals. When we, when I first came into this neighborhood to open the gallery, people were so afraid to come downtown, you know, because it was a red light district from World War II days. That was what it was known for, was brothels and, you know, drunks on the street. And so times have changed, but people's perceptions didn't change. So what we did was, you and I, we put, we helped put on a lot of street festivals and it was really fun. And people started to come and now, you know, it's not unusual with people to come. They come at like nine o'clock at night and they stay at two in the morning, way past my bedtime. But, but it's, it's, it's the safest place to come and, and have a drink, eat dinner, you know, catch some good entertainment. And sometimes galleries are open, on first Fridays the galleries are open and so it's really a fun night to just walk around and look at art. And just meet up with people, you know.