Meet the remarkable jurors of the Mālama Wao Akua exhibition, where art and science come together in a unique blend. Our first juror is a seasoned art expert, bringing a refined eye for creative expression. Partnering with him is a previous East Maui Watershed Partnership employee and conservationist, the visionary who initiated this exhibit in 2004.
Mike Takemoto, Visual Artist and Associate Professor of Art at UH Maui College
Michael Takemoto is a visual artist and Professor of Art at the University of Hawai’i Maui College. Takemoto received a BFA in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. He earned an MA and an MFA in Studio Art from Northern Illinois University.
Takemoto has exhibited his paintings, prints, murals, sculpture, and installations nationally and at various locations in Hawai’i, including the Honolulu Museum of Art, the East Hawai’i Cultural Center, the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, the Wailoa Center, the Downtown Art Center, and the Hui Noʻeau Visual Arts Center. In 2003, his work was featured in the 6th Biennial of Hawai’i Artists at the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu.
At UHMC, Takemoto is the Program Coordinator of the Art Department and teaches courses in art appreciation, drawing, painting, and printmaking. He has also worked as a teaching artist with the Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s education program, the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Art’s Artists-in-the-Schools Program, and the Kaunoa Senior Center.
Kat M. Lui, Former EMWP Community Outreach and Education Liaison (2003-2009)
Kat Lui is a wildlife biologist/botanist-turned-acupuncturist who comes from a family of artists. She fell in love with the magic and mystery of “Wao Akua” when she worked with the now extinct Po‘ouli and other endangered songbirds of East Maui, in 2001. In 2004, while serving as the Community Outreach and Education Liaison for East Maui Watershed Partnership, she was inspired to take Connie J. Adam’s watercolor class and paint an ‘Ākohekohe. Unsatisfied with how the piece turned out, she wondered if there was a way to harness the talents of local artists to capture the magnificence and fragility of Maui’s native flora and fauna. Hence, she created the Mālama Wao Akua juried art exhibition, and ran it until 2009, when she left the islands to meditate for three years.
Through meditation, she realized the powerful effects of Maui’s mana on her ‘uhane-shen-spirit and qi, which inspired her to study and practice Chinese Medicine. She and her partner now own a clinic in Bend, Oregon.
