Featured Cover Artist: Kathy Long
“It’s the people who are creating the renaissance of the Hawaiian culture that truly inspire me. I hope that by documenting this moment in time, their stories will live on.” – Kathy Long
Kathy Long’s pastels and black & white drawings of the people and culture of Hawai‘i are seen as some of the most accurate and sensitive contemporary works available today. She captures the essence of Hawai‘i so well, that the Hawai‘i Visitor Bureau and Hawaiian Airlines have used her paintings and drawings to promote Hawai‘i as a cultural destination.
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Daughter of the well-known artist, Mary Koski, Kathy lived in Hilo as a child and traveled widely with her parents before settling down to study Fine Arts. After graduating from one of the oldest schools for the Arts in Scandinavia, she had her debut in the prestigious Waino Aaltonen Museum in Finland. This was the beginning of a series of thirteen one-woman shows throughout Europe over the course of the next several years.
In 1979, Kathy and her husband, Bertil, an art historian, moved to the United States to open a gallery in Houston, Texas. The gallery handled works by her mother and herself as well as notable names such as Henry Moore, Robert Vickery and two dozen other internationally respected artists.
In 1982, Kathy and her family settled in Waimea, where her husband became the curator for Parker Ranch for 13 years. Combining her interest in cultural anthropology and art, Kathy began to record the renaissance of the Hawaiian culture and is now considered one of the best interpreters of the revival.
Kathy has been the winner of purchase awards by the Hawai‘i Council for Culture and the Arts and many “People’s Choice” awards, as well as featured on Hawai‘i’s PBS program, Spectrum, several times, and in national and international publications. The Island of Hawai‘i Visitors Bureau has commissioned her to do a series of images, which help promote the cultural identity of Hawai‘i.
She is invited yearly to the Celebration of the Arts held at the Ritz Carlton Kapalua, as a guest speaker, has been the official artist for Hawaiian Airlines and has done the posters for the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival for 2001 and 2002. She has had over 50 one-woman-shows and her work can be seen in public and major private collections around the world.
Contact Kathy Long: contact@kathylongartist.com
