 Okay, it's 12 o'clock rock. We're back. I'm Jay Fidel. Welcome back to Community Matters. I'm your host today and our guest today are Mary Cook, wife of Sam Cook who died last year, and their daughter Kathy Cook and friends and great supporters of ThinkTech. Now they published a book and opened a gallery in Minoa, celebrating Minoa and the Minoa Heritage Center on Minoa Road. There was a celebration two weeks ago, celebrating the opening of the gallery and the publication of the book, Paintings, Prints, and Drawings of Hawaii from the Sam and Mary Cook collection. That's the name. The book is really, really, really beautiful and we'll take a look at some of the items in the collection and in the book with Mary and Kathy today. We'll find out more about the collection, the Minoa Heritage Center, the gallery, and why Mary and Sam Cook wanted to do this. And of course we'll take a look at Hawaiian history and that's the center of all of it. The book and the collection are important, especially in a time when Hawaiian history, culture, and legacy are extremely important and increasingly important. This is something we all need to know about and learn about. What they have done and are doing is a great benefit to the community. Thanks for being here, Mary Cook and Kathy Cook. It's great to have you at ThinkTech. Oh, you're welcome, Jay. Great to be here. Well, I really want to find out, you know, what motivated you and what is happening here. Can we talk first, Mary, about the collection itself? When did it start? Why did it start? And what did you do to create it? Sam is the one that started it when we were first married, you know, 55 years ago. And he had just had a wonderful discerning eye and a love of collecting. So he collected for 55 years. And the book, three years ago, he saw a book that David Forbes had just finished. See if I can get that book. That's the book, okay? It's a beauty. And if you open it up, you will see just at any page, the most beautiful paintings and great prose, great prose. Now, David's a great historian. David Forbes wrote the book, yeah. So he saw this book that David had just completed three years ago and he said, I've got to have one for my collection. So he called up David and called up Barbara Pope, who designed the book and got them started. And so this is really his legacy. And what's interesting is the book is a collection which, you know, identifies itself as a collection. It has catalog numbers and all that. But it's also a book with prose, with history, and it connects all the works that are in the collection. So you get it both ways. You get it as a collection, but you also get it as a historical statement of what happened in Hawaii and why these pictures express that history. Makes it very, very valuable. I mean, it's so interesting because he starts with Captain Cook, not related, came in 1778 with his artist. And those prints are in the collection and goes all the way through to Greg Pye in 2012. And Greg Pye has a Kamani tree in his painting of Honolay Valley. And that same Kamani tree is on the cover of the book in a painting done by Howard Hitchcock a hundred years earlier. So this is my favorite of all the paintings. And accordingly it's on the cover. Sam found that in Kentucky of all places. Someone told him that a guy had this painting for sale and so he called him up and they sent a slide, no internet in those days. And we said, ah, gotta have it. I was born on Kauai. So, you know, Honolay has a real soft spot in my heart. Special romantic place. Yeah. So he, it sounds like he went everywhere or you guys went everywhere, anywhere to get pieces for the collection. You didn't hesitate to go to the mainland and I suppose you had many sources that you approached to get these members of the collection. Yeah, we went to Europe and found things in Paris and London and Sam had a dealer in Australia that he got quite a few paintings. A serious collection. Yeah. Now, what about Kathy? You were growing up when all this was happening. You saw the collection being assembled. What was your reaction and what was your participation, Kathy? Well, my father would show me every new piece he got. And early on I developed a deep love for art and art history. And I think that had to do with my parents' love of Hawaiian art. Let's talk about the history for a minute, okay? The history is definitely part of the book. And if you're going to appreciate the works of art in the book, you need to know about the history. So assembling a collection is an educational experience. Oh, definitely. You learn everything. You know everything. David, I've learned so much from the book, from David. You know, there are pictures of little churches in this first, one of the first pictures in the book done by Barnfield of early Honolulu from Sand Island. And there's a little church right here with two steeples. And it looks like it's right downtown. And I said, David, where is that church now? It burned down during the Chinatown fire. So you have to know this. Yeah. And David teaches you all of this in the book. Yeah. It reminds me of my friend, Fred Gregory, who I was on a service with, and he was friendly with Twig Smith. And they were both stamp collectors, you know, and they bought and sold stamps, Hawaiian covers, for years and years and years, and both of them had a big collection. But in doing that, in acquiring these memorabilia, these artworks, these stamps and covers, you learn everything about history. And Fred did the same thing. He wrote a book about Hawaiian history based on his collection. So this is a great contribution to, you know, just another way of looking at Hawaiian history. Let's take a look at some of your slides so we can see some of these things, first up. Okay. Oh, that's you and Sam. Sam and me in Sam's library. He had a beautiful library collected. All the voyages that came to Hawaii, that came to the Pacific that stopped in Hawaii, starting with Captain Cook. And there's the title page inside the book, showing that Kamanitri in Hunaway. Beautiful color. It's beautiful. That's Heia by Floyd Sexton, where the glass bottom boat ride used to be. And this is Kahumanu, Kamehameha's favorite wife. We will. Yeah. Let's take some, take some, a look at some of the pictures from the gallery now. Okay. We're going to explore the gallery. The gallery is brand new. It's on Manoa Road. East Manoa Road. East Manoa Road. And Lowery Avenue. And Lowery Avenue. Right across from Morningglass Coffee. Right across from Morningglass Coffee. Okay. So you can have coffee, go to the gallery. Kathy, the gallery is your baby. Tell us about the gallery. Well, the gallery is newly opened this year. And we feature living artists, but very much so in the tradition that mom and dad taught me about, you know, so our painters and photographers primarily depict landscape, beautiful scenic landscapes of Hawaii. So it's very much a travel log for those who have traveled the islands. We also sell jewelry, exquisite jewelry. We're both wearing it. The samples right now, right here. Samples. Now, ceramics. Oh, we have, yeah, there's a picture of the jewelry in your gallery. Yep. It's a Hawaiian style jewelry too, is it? Well, most of the jewelry, the jewelry artist, Kori Yi, gets most of her gems, pearls, stones from Nepal and neighboring countries. So very unique, very beautiful. Oh, that's great. Yeah. So the interesting thing to me is that you have, you have local artists, living artists, painting landscapes and, you know, scenery of Hawaii, like the work in the collection. Nobody in this collection is live right now, I guess, but. Yes. Oh, there are two. Who are they? Chris Campbell and Greg Pie. Greg Pie, former state economist, as I remember, yeah. And many other things. And many other endeavors. So, yeah, that's very interesting. But essentially, the gallery extends the whole thrust of the book forward. It extends it into living artists with living topics. But they're also, these artists and these topics are a study of Hawaii, right? It's an extension of the book. Right. Here's Greg Pie. Greg Pie, beautiful. Yeah, that does good work. Can you see that? Yeah, that's beautiful. With that Kamani tree, 100 years after Howard Hitchcock's Kamani tree. This was, Howard Hitchcock's was 18. 1912. 1912. And Greg is 2012. Right, it's 2012. Yeah. So over time, Mary, you have undoubtedly developed a very, a very refined eye to art. Well, it's really Sam's eye. Okay. Now, he's the one that he said, I'm wanting to buy the 10 paintings that were done for American factors when they celebrated their 100th anniversary. And they were done by Peter Herd. In fact, Amfact printed, made prints of the paintings. And my folks had one that we enjoyed when we were growing up. I think they sold them for 25 or more years. And he wanted those 10 paintings. And when American factors sold out, the new owner wanted to put them in a condo on Maui. When they went belly up, then Sam called a friend that the American factors had was behoove him to ask him to please ask them to celebrate what they did. So he came home and he said, I bought 10 paintings, four by five feet. Well, where are you going to put those? From the whole wall, for sure. We found room for them. They lined the stairway. You know, collecting art is not all that easy. You have to have that taste. You have to be able to determine the real art from the maybe the not so real art. And then you have to have a place for it in your worldview, your historical perception, and your perception of art. So what was Sam looking for in these paintings? And you were standing by his side, Mary, so you could speak to this. I'm saying, where are you going to put all those? Appropriate question. Well, he just loved Kauai. So many of our paintings are done on Kauai. He loved history. You know, his library is just filled with books that he collected. It's wonderful to have a collection like that. We're going to take a short break, Mary, Kathy, and we come back. I'd like to talk about the Manoa Heritage Center and how that fits, how it fits with the book, how it fits with the collection, how it fits with the gallery. So we can see this all in a sort of a comprehensive way. We'll be right back in one minute. Aloha. My name is John Waihei, and I used to be a part of all the things that you might be angry at. I served in government here and may have made decisions that affects you. So I want to invite you in. I want to invite you in to talk story with me and some very special guests every other Monday here at Talk Story with John Waihei. Come on in, join us, express your opinion, learn more about your state, and then do something about it. Aloha. We're back with Mary Cook and Kathy Cook, and we're talking about the collection, which is now reflected in this wonderful book about the Sam and Mary Cook collection. And we're connecting that up with the Manoa Heritage Center and with the gallery on East Manoa Road. But first, I'd like to mention, as we discussed in the break, Susie Anderson. Now, we all know Susie Anderson, your relative, but there's another Susie Anderson, which I find that you guys know about. And she paints, she's played on plein air, is the style of her painting. It's very similar to Greg Beye and a lot of the work in the collection. And I asked you in the break if you knew her, because she was on the show not a week ago. And she showed us a bunch of her paintings as she does. So what do you think of her work? And is there a future for her, you know, in this kind of collection? Absolutely. I love her work. And I have several of her paintings in my home. And she's a delightful, bright woman. I hear it's very well organized. Maybe, you know, a great contribution to our gallery someday. Well, let's talk about that. Let's talk about the ongoing quality of the collection. Will there be new pieces added to it? No. Okay, I have my answer. I don't have any room. It's done, it's done. No room, right. Not the stairs or anywhere. Because the whole collection is in the house. And the book is a preview of coming attractions, because when it's no longer my residence, the house goes to Manoa Heritage Center. And it'll be open to the public for viewing. So other pieces in the collection that are not in the book? Yes, yes. This is just the very, you know, favorite. The top of the iceberg. Yeah. So you can, like a museum, you can rotate these pieces and change them around. Maybe publish another book with the one you didn't cover the first time. Yeah, he has a fabulous collection of artifacts, calabashes. He even collected a little wooden statue. Loved wood carvings. Wood carvings, right. Emil Janell, who is from the Mother Boat country in California. And beautiful clocks. He loved his clocks. Sam must have spent a lot of time building this, you know, must have been a tremendous passion for him. Yes. And he read all those books, you know. Yeah. So that made him an expert in Hawaiian history. Right. So let's talk about the transmutation, if I can call it that, of the collection and the book into the Manoa Heritage Center. What is it? And how is that going to work? Manoa Heritage Center was established 20 years ago. It's a non-profit organization to preserve the culture and the history of Hawaii. And it consists of a Hei Ao, Kukau O Hei Ao, which was built by Menehune almost a thousand years ago. It's one of 14 that were in... You said Menehune. Yeah. I thought you said Menehune. Yeah, I did. Okay, just checking. Built by the Menehune. I think the Hawaiians believe that the first settlers were small people, as opposed to larger people that came from other parts of the island. That makes sense, yeah. And so I think they called it Menehune. It's the only Hei Ao in our Ahupua that's still intact. In Manoa. It's kind of like the center of Manoa. Yeah, we're in Ahupua of Waikiki, so we can look all the way to Diamond Hill, from our Lanai. It's fabulous. Yeah, and we cater to school groups who are studying history, Hawaiian history. They are offered to come for free, and if they need a bus, we have a bus subsidy that we give for that. And then we do tours for visitors and local people as well. So you can show them the Hei Ao. Yes. You can show them the works in the collection, in the center, so to speak. No, these are all in our home. Okay, so not yet. No. And so we do tours of the Hei Ao and the surrounding Native Hawaiian garden. When we had the Hei Ao restored in 1993, when we purchased it from other people, we just had to take care of it, knowing that, you know, it was very special. It's fragile. Very. And so we hired Billy Field to come from the big island to restack the stones, and then we landscaped it with what would have been the Native Hawaiian plants that were there originally. I've seen it. I've been there. You had me over once a couple of years ago, and I thought it was really an interesting Hei Ao. It was complex as Hei Ao's go, and you could see a lot of things there. And it looks out over what is going to be our visitor education holly, which we're going to be opening sometime this coming summer. It's an extension of the Native Hawaiian garden, and then additional buildings that will better accommodate the school groups. And it's LEED certified, which makes it very special. Yeah. And it's a certified historic property, too, right? Yes, yes. The Tudor home anyway. The Hei Ao is on the register, the National Budget Center, as is the Tudor home, which was built 105 years ago by Sam's grandparents. So this is completely faithful to his vision. This is his idea, I suppose, back when, yeah, to actually sort of convert or transmute, you know, the collection and the property and the Hei Ao into the Minoa Heritage Center. Right. Mom was the leading force. Okay, we've got that straight. Don't be modest. That's been a long term. Yeah, I've always been interested in historic preservation. So to me, this is historic preservation in being done in Minoa, which is very, very important. And you haven't, in fact, done that because Minoa is pretty much a residential neighborhood, except for this sort of island in the stream, which is the Minoa Heritage property. And, you know, it's unique in Minoa. In fact, it's unique in the side of the island, as far as I know, yeah. So are you participating in this, Kathy? This is a big project, isn't it? It is a big project. Kathy's on the board of our directors. So I participate to the extent that I can. And yeah, I have many memories growing up there. Oh, sure. This is where you grew up. Kualii, isn't it? Kualii is the home that we've been living in for the last since 1970, when Sam's grandmother passed away. We moved in. What was it named? That's cool. It must have been a long time ago. It was named by Sam's grandparents for the chief of Oahu. Before Kamehameha United, Kamehameha the First United rule of the islands. So can you talk to me a little about your family and the heritage that goes way back when? Well, Sam's great-grandmother was a woman from Kualii, and she married Charles Monty Cook Sr., Anna-Race Cook. And she started the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1927 with her collection. It was already clear the family was going to get into art, eh? Yeah. In fact, there were a couple of paintings done by Robert Dampierre that were in our home when Sam's grandfather passed away. They were given to the Honolulu Academy of Arts, now the Honolulu Museum of Arts. So it really defines the family. So if we've been, and Sam just inherits that love of art from his great-grandmother or grandfather, and Kathy inherits it as well. From my parents? Yeah. Yeah. You're going to carry it forward. How important is it to you? Well, I've always loved. I've always had many friends that were artists. I studied art and art history extensively. Ah. Lived in Europe for about 10 years and had a great time seeing art there. Sure. That's for sure. And... You're on the track, then. You're living out the destiny of the family, Kathy. The galleries and extension of my parents' love for Hawaiian art, for sure. Here you go. It's a great repository, a special museum, if you will, and more. Can I end with saying how to get the book? Yeah, please. How do we get the book? Okay. It's on sale at Kathy's Gallery. Of course. Open on Tuesday through Friday afternoons, from 1 to 5. Mono Heritage Center, Monday through Friday, from 8.30 to 4.30, at Nohea Gallery, and Namea. And Namea? Yeah. And also the Honolulu Museum of Art. All the perfect places to carry it. Or, even easier, just go online to monohaheritagecenter.org, order it through PayPal. You could come to my house, pick it up, or we'll mail it to you. All included in the $100 price. That's great. Thank you, Mary. Mary, I wanted to ask you to read a piece from that book so we can feel the roar of the grease paint and the smell of the crowd. I'm going to read you what David Forbes has written here. Sam and Mary Cook have assembled at Kulei, their Manoa Valley home, a cultural treasure unsurpassed by any other private collection in the island. This collection of paintings, drawings, and prints of the Hawaiian islands uniquely reflects the Kama'ina appreciation the cooks have for various locales throughout the islands, including generation-blong associations with the people and places, and the love of legends and history. In this book, historian and bibliographer David Forbes presents a selection of the collection's finest works. Yes. And that describes the intersection of the art and the history. A perfect place to be. So I also want to offer you guys the opportunity to speak to the public. They're right there at camera one. The red light is on. And tell them what they should be looking for in this book. What's the experience of looking at this collection of, you know, feeling the history and feeling the art? What it should be like for Kathy? Well it's a magnificent chronological collection, again of 18th and 19th century art, and David Forbes is one of the finest writers in the state. He wrote the Hawaiian National Bibliography and Encounters in Paradise, which really put this type of art on the map. I think just those interested in art and history and the people of Hawaii would get great joy and satisfaction out of reading the book. I've looked at it and I totally agree with that. Everyone that sees it has to have one. So Mary, you're the anchor man now. Will you tell them what you'd like them to see and understand from looking at this book? What the experience should be like? Well it's just a wonderful history of Hawaii and it's beautiful photographs taken by Shuzo Uemoto from the museum and you can't put it down once you get started. It's true. You have to just read till the end. It's true. Punctuated with the beautiful prints, the beautiful panics. Right. It's an intersection. It's a connection. It's a connection of the history of the collection which you have spent your life building with your husband. It's an appreciation of the art and somehow it also connects to today. That's why I like this show because all the pieces connect. The historical, the art which is timeless, your gallery which is now altogether. Thank you so much you guys for coming down. It's been wonderful. Thanks for having us. Thank you for having us.