 Aloha. I'm Marsha Joyner, and we are Navigating the Journey. Navigating the Journey is dedicated to exploring the options and choices in life. And today we will journey down a very special path. The artist and sculptor, Ken Duffett, recognized there was a problem on Gandhi Day a couple years ago when he looked at the sculpture and saw how dark it was. And so his whole idea was that this whole area needed to be upgraded, that the consciousness needed to be there, the piece that Gandhi was or exhibited. So making these changes to transform the experience of the Gandhi Park, he decided, made a deal with himself and anyone that would listen that it had to be transformed. And so to take it from the dark patina to a lovely earth patina, to allow people to see the warmth, the feeling that Gandhi was, not this deep dark person. So he ventured out to create, to sculpt, to find people, to do all of these wonderful things to make this statue come alive with the new patina. So today we are going to talk to my dear friend, Kim Duffett, who is just precious. You have seen his sculptures everywhere in this city. They are just incredible. So before we go down that path, Kim, welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for taking this trip. Thanks so much, Marsha. To tell us now, when you looked at this statue at the Gandhi event, which is October 2nd coming up real soon, when you looked at that a couple of years ago, what was it you saw? What did you feel? What happened that made you say we have to do something? As an artist, you see things that the rest of us don't see. Right. Well, that was in 2014. And we've supported that event for many years as musicians, my wife and I. And so I was looking at it at the park and I realized it was so dark, you couldn't see it even from 20 feet away, but alone from the street. And as testament to that, that sculpture has been here in the city for 24 years, and hardly anyone knows that it's here. And it's really quite a beautiful sculpture. So I made a proposal to the city and, you know, mayor's office for culture and the arts. It's under there, Kuliana. And I had to go before the city art commission and make a proposal and design the whole thing for that in two phases. And they approved that. And then I went to the city council and they supported it. They said, if you can come through with the first phase, which was basically change the patina and add informational plaques to the pedestal and get money to support that, we will help fund the second phase, which was much more ambitious to create that kind of park space. To give it that sacredness that whole area needs, what should have, let me put it that way. And basically I realized, I mean, it had a very, very dark patina. If you've ever seen a road down or anything like that, it's kind of a style of patina from turn of the century. And everyone thinks that's how sculptures should be either dark black or dark brown. And what happens is that under the shade of a tree, it just disappears into the shadows. Just to let the audience know that the tree that he's referring to is this huge banyan tree. And it is a sacred tree of India. And it was a gift to the city in the 1800s. That was why the Gandhi statue was set in that location. So you can imagine a banyan tree when it was planted. It was a nice size, ordinary sized tree. When Gandhi statue was there, what year was that? That was 1989. 1989. In those years now, this tree has just grown over the statue and it's shade and it's dark. And so when I mentioned to people about the Gandhi statue, they said, what statue? Where? People that have lived here all their lives and walked past it tons of times and had not seen it. Right. So go ahead. Yeah. So the idea was to create a light patina because light colors reflect light. And that's what we see is light. It also allows you to see all the texture and the detail that the artist put into it. It's quite a beautiful piece. And I proposed to make it sort of a light terracotta color. The kind of color that the clay would have been originally when the artist was working on it, the kind of earthy color that would represent symbolically a man of the earth, Mahatma Gandhi. But now tell me, I understand that you had to find the original sculptor because all art is copyrighted. So you had to find the original sculptor in order to do the work. So tell us about him. Yeah. Steven C. Lowe. He's from, descended from the Shawnee Indian tribe. And yeah, I was required to get written permission from him and finding him was a bit of a sleuthing job. But fortunately, I sent a letter with my proposal and everything to his last known address. And it was forwarded to him. And he got it and got excited about it and gave me permission. And he's been interested in the process. And we invited him to the unveiling of the piece. And so he was part of that ceremony. That was April 14th, I believe, 24th somewhere in there in 2016, wasn't it? I think so. So now that he says, okay, you can do this, there's no infringement on the copyright. What happens? What's the next step? Okay, there's raising the money, of course, which is always a bear. Getting permission. Getting permission. So now the work begins. What happens? Well, back up. What is a patina? Okay, that's a good question. Patina, as far as bronze is concerned, is not paint. It's not surface coloration. It's a chemical reaction. It's sort of like controlled oxidization. So when you see bronze in nature, it's got rain and particulate in the air and so on and so forth. It's basically an alloy, primarily of copper. And it will turn green over time. But it will spot and get variations. So you want to do it in a controlled fashion. And different ways of doing patina. But the most common way is to use a torch, heat up the bronze, and use different chemicals mostly based in nitric acid that etch and react with molecular structure of the bronze to create different colors. And you use that with a spray or a brush or a sponge or whatever to get different textures. And you can layer it and basically paint with fire. Paint with fire. Fire, yeah. Wow. That sounds interesting. But how do you paint with fire? Well, you're torching it, you're spraying it, and it's reacting under heat. Oh, so it's not a chemical reaction. It's a chemical reaction. It's a chemical reaction. Not a flaming fire. Oh, no, it's a torch with a flame. And you're heating the bronze, you're bringing up to heat, and then as you're doing it, you're torching the thing and it will react and etch and attach itself to the bronze. Wow. How long does that take? You know, it depends on the piece, the complexity of the piece, how much surface area, what kind of patina you need. Well, how long did it take for you to transform this piece? Okay, so we had to sandblast the piece. So I had to create a sandblasting chamber around it that was 12 feet by 12 feet by 12 feet tall with enough space to move around with a ladder and sandblast and vacuum suction. So you're a carpenter as well as a sculptor? Sure. Yeah. Okay. And so we sandblasted it and did some metal repair and wirebrushed it to get the sheen of the metal back and then did the patina process that I'm talking about. So that it, when it's complete, there's this beautiful earth tone? Yeah, you know, like clay. Like clay. Kind of a earthy clay. I think that's really appropriate for a man that walked to the sea, you know. Sure. That made sandals, well, he was in prison. He made sandals for the guards. I think that color represents more than anything who he was. Right. And, you know, the other thing that I noticed about the piece was that it had just a single plaque in the front, which didn't have the title of the piece, didn't have the name of the sculptor, didn't have any kind of description of what his intention was or the date when it was created. It basically honored the people who raised the funds to create it. That was the Watermouth family. Exactly. Which was a great thing, a great gift to Hawaii. You know, honored the city, Frank Fosse and the group that had brought, made the connection with the sculptor, Steven. And nothing else. So, and also it didn't say anything about Mahatma Gandhi. And I felt this was a wonderful opportunity. This is a moment where people come and see the piece. Many of them know Gandhi, but they don't know his story. They don't know why he's with the staff walking. They don't get the symbolic quality of it. And as part of that proposal, we did three plaques. Two of them were purely informational about Gandhi. And one was specific to his walking to the sea for salt. We are going to take a break. And when we come back, we are going to talk about his walk to the sea. Great. Great. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Say something to local authorities. Welcome to Hawaii. This is Prince Dykes, your host of The Prince of Investing. Coming to you guys each and every Tuesday at 11 a.m. Right here on Think Tech Hawaii. Don't forget to come by and check out some of the great information on stocks, investing, your money, all the other great stuff. And I'll be your host. See you Tuesday. Aloha, and we're back. We're talking with my dear friend. As you know, I only talk to dear friends. This is Kim Duffett. He's a great artist and a sculptor. And now we learn he's a carpenter. We're talking about Mahatma Gandhi. And on the second day of October, there will be an event at the Gandhi statue. And Kim worked and worked and worked for a couple, three years to revitalize the statue, to bring it from its dark, dreary color to a bright, beautiful earth tone. And so that we can see it and feel it and touch it and all that kind of stuff. I have to say that it wasn't just me who did the work. I had help. And we created a nonprofit organization, the Friends of the Gandhi statue in Waikiki, that got together. It takes a village, right? And raised the money. There were wonderful people who donated to the project. They're all part of that, too. And so it's a process. It's just not me alone. Well, because it is Gandhi, a symbol of peace and nonviolence. In fact, I guess we have to say for our sake, for those of us in Western culture, that he is the symbol of the beginning of nonviolence. And his walk is to stand up to the British government to take back what was India before the British came. And to stand up in a nonviolent way and then have the people of India, and what is now Pakistan, to have those people come together to take on the British government and tell them, you've got to go home. You know, a lot of people think, well, what's the deal about salt? Why is that important? Salt is on the table every day. It's basically a cheap commodity. But in those days, it was the British Empire. And they wanted to legalize a monopoly in their favor and control salt. And that's what they did. They controlled all the mines and salt production by the sea. And Indians who, you know, it's a struggling, poor, or wealthy, it doesn't matter. They need salt. And salt was not cheap when it was coming through the British. And it was a symbolic moment for him to walk to the sea. He started alone. And by the time he got there, thousands of people were following him. All across India, as large as India is, people came from everywhere to follow. And he was a true revolutionary. We look at, there's something about this walking. I don't know what, I'm not sure that I can have words for it. Jesus can do. Jesus walked. He was a true revolutionary. And then they killed him. Gandhi walked and then was assassinated by his own people. Martin Luther King walked and was assassinated. People, the power structure cannot deal with these revolutionaries that people follow. They said, this is, we can't do this. We can't deal with this. But he showed us, he showed us how people coming together for their home, for their land. Can stand up and speak out. Against something as big as the British Empire. Without violence. Without violence. Right. The violence, though, came to Gandhi after all of the years that he suffered and worked for his people to be killed by his own person. But a Hindu was really sad. But that caused so many people to come to follow. I guess that's that moment that you have to die to live forever is, and I use those three, Jesus, Gandhi, and King, that at that moment of death they live forever. There's so many revolutionaries, we don't know their names. So what? Well, they sacrificed their lives for what they felt and thought and stood for. Gandhi did much more than walk. He wrote, he was a fantastic author and wrote many, many books and many of them spoke about his method of nonviolent protest, which inspired Martin Luther King, inspired John Lennon, inspired people all over the world to stand up all the protests Black Lives Matter. All of this has a foundation in what Gandhi proved in that march. And it was more than just, like you say, the march, more than just the salt. It was the independence of India that he told the British, you know, we can be friends, but you must go home. We don't have to be enemies, but you must go home. This is ours. He struggled for his people in South Africa and in India. And for me who, you know, has loved who he is, what he stood for, and trying to read all of the things he wrote, my goodness, a lifetime of writing. It would take a lifetime to read all of it. But in the end of, when the British did go home, it was a day of triumph and tragedy. Triumph that the British left, tragedy that the Hindi or Hindu and the Muslims came apart. Yeah, that transformed greater India into India, as we know it now, and Pakistan, which was a sad day. It was, yes, great that the British went home sad that those people that had struggled together came apart. That they couldn't find a nonviolent way to resolve their differences and find common ground. And they still haven't. True. So I do have to say that many people wonder why Gandhi here in Hawaii. You know, what is the connection between Gandhi and Hawaii? And there are things within the culture of Hawaii, aloha, you know, that spirit of openness and peace and welcoming, wanting things to be pono, a sense of justice, you know, doing things in the spirit of righteousness and direct from their hearts. These are things that are, you know, part of what is so spiritually strong and appealing in Hawaiian culture and symbolized by aloha. Aloha is much more complex and deep and spiritual than just speaking the word as a greeting. And this is the spiritual and philosophical connection of Gandhi to Hawaii. I think that that whole area where the statue is located, oh, for anybody that doesn't know, it is at Kapilani Park on the, just the entrance to the zoo. And that whole space, the eve mound next to it. And it should be a sacred space that you should be able to come and feel the warmth, the love and listen to the animals, you know, because they're there. They're part, their energy is there. It's a beautiful energy. It's a lovely place. And everybody must, must, I know. You say, I don't know where it is. I didn't, I lived here all my life and didn't see it. Now you can go. Now you can go down Kapilani Boulevard. And after Kapahulu, just as you're coming out of Waikiki into Kapilani Park and you look over on your left and now you can see the sculpture and from the street. And we're trying to get lighting for it. And we are going to install the final plaque on the back of the pedestal in a couple of days. October 2nd. Well, it'll be ready for October 2nd. What time is the event, do you know? Evening time, huh? No, no, no. It's during the day. Oh, the Gandhi celebration is during the day? Yeah, I think so. Oh, okay, fine. You know, later in the day, but it goes up to sunset. So I imagine, I imagine it starts around 5, 5.30. Well, we want everybody to come out. Now one last thing before we go. I alluded to Kim and all the beautiful work he's done. So the most photographed piece on Oahu is the sculpture that you did in front of the Hilton Hawaiian village that everybody has passed. You must, if you haven't been there, go down and take a look. I understand it's the most photographed piece in on Oahu. Is that true? Okay. All right. He just dedicated the sculpture of Don Ho. He did one of Gabi Pahinui, Alfred Apaka. Just the city is just full of his incredibly gorgeous work. Yolani Luahine. Yeah. And also at the Hilton. Right. Yolani and Alfred are in front of the top of tower. So, again, take the time. Take the time to go look at all of these sculptures that he has done. The Punahou. Yeah, that's a piece that's located at the courtyards of Punahou on Baritania Street next to Central Union Church, on the Mako side of the street. And there's one somewhere back behind the, the, it used to be another hotel back there, but that big around Aina in front of the Grand Waikiki and the New Hotel. Yeah. Yeah. As you're entering into Waikiki, you cross over the Alawai Canal and you pass by the Prince and the Ilekai. And right at that bend, there's a 15 foot tall granite ringpoi pounder. And at the top, it's the carving of the islands representing the islands of Hawaii. And there are water spilling off the sides representing the many beautiful waterfalls and down the front and in the back and the flame in the center. So that piece represents the elements of earth, air, fire, and water that are constantly interacting to create the Aina. Well, Kim, of course, is a great artist, sculptor. Sculptor? Sculptor, he is. Yeah, sculptor. So you are on the internet. People can take a look under Kim Duffett, sculptor. Kim Duffett, www.kimduffett.com. And take a look at all of his wonderful things and then take the time to go down Kapiolani Boulevard and take a look at the Gandhi statue. Thank you so much, Kim. Thank you for being with us. And we will see you next week. Aloha.