Jack Balas, 2010; THE DISCOVERY OF HONOLULU (#509); oil, enamel and ink on canvas, 69" x 70" (175 x 178 cm)

TEXT:

"THE DISCOVERY OF HONOLULU in c. 2003 in OWHYHEE when JACK J. BALAS (the Artist) (c. 47) stepped off United 43 at HNL. INT'L onto the Wiki Wiki Walkway and was struck not by a Wiki Wiki BUS, but by the warm moist TRADEWINDS swaying the palms and pecs and abs as far as the eye could see, and it was apparent, having read DIDION and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, that while those accounts of various wartimes bore only slight resemblance to this concrete urbanism tattoo'd with babes and surfers and whose sands he now let course through his toes, he was nevertheless not only at sea level, but also three miles up this volcanic slope risen from the floor of the Pacific, to the point that while he thought he had come to the beach, he saw that he'd also come, indeed, to THE MOUNTAINTOP."