David Shepard
Manu-o-kū & Flowering Hau Tree
Giclee on Paper, Silk with Dyes
Introductory Gallery

Artist Statement:
A past Hawaiʻi echoes with visions of a future one, for now, in this fixed space. My artwork serves to anchor the entry into Shangri La with a sense of place, of source. Images are hand drawn in pen and ink and then turned into continuous repeating vector pattern illustrations using Adobe Illustrator. Close-ups of the art hang on the east and west walls. Silk banners drape from the ceiling to show the complete illustration in fabric form.

Manu-o-kū birds soar, nest and fish amongst the coastal flowering Hawaiian hau trees. The hau flowers last only a single day each, going from yellow at dawn to orange and red as the day ends. The yellow color scheme symbolizes dawn and the blue color scheme evening. The manu-o-kū, also known as the white tern, holds deep cultural and ecological significance in Hawaiʻi. When seen out at sea, these graceful birds are natural indicators to seafarers that land is near. Like fishermen, they go out to sea in the mornings to fish and return to shore in the evenings.

hey were once rare in Hawaiʻi, except in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Their comeback since the 1970s in urban Honolulu is a testament to dedicated community conservation efforts, while echoing the timeline of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. Here at Shangri La, these birds can be seen regularly coming and going out to sea as well as nesting on site, as they would have done for millennia in the shadow of Lēʻahi (Diamond Head). Honolulu has also implemented measures to protect the trees where they are actively nesting from disturbance, marking them with a blue ribbon around the trunk.

Visit https://www.whiteterns.org to find valuable information, resources and opportunities for contributing to the protection and preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the manu-o-kū

David Shepard
David Shepard is an artist, fabric designer, horticulturist and scientist. Committed to the love of the land, its stories and the people that care for it, he set out to tell those stories visually. David Shepard Hawaiʻi is his aloha wear apparel company with a conservation mission. David hand-draws detailed artistic representations of native Hawaiian plants. Printed onto fabric, art forms the basis for meaningful clothing that is made in Hawaiʻi. A percentage of proceeds go back to Hawaiʻi conservation organizations every year.