Solomon Enos

02/19/2026

Mōhala I Ka Wai, The Water Blooms.

Truth, like water, will eventually make its way back to the surface. A dam has broken, and a generation of work is ahead of us to hold those in power to account. This weeks offerings are all expressions of this sense of purpose, with a one-day mural painted at the entrance of the new shared workspace in Honolulu, Ourspace. Here is a brief Description of the work: “This mural as an anthropomorphic expression of the myriad waterways that flow below and throughout the space and time of Kaka‘ako. Below the asphalt and concrete, the water remembers these ancient paths that connected the Nu‘uanu watershed and the historic fishponds along the coast. The alo, the face of this memory, blooms  up and out from the ground, as a sustained conversation about what was, and can be again. Here in this new shared community space, this engagement aspires to bring forth the best from all stop to drink it in”. Coupled with this mural, the first of a series of new community murals has begun around the expanded construction wall at the State Capitol made with the hands of 200 children. Diversity truly is our superpower, and stay tuned for more opportunities for community solidarity in the arts!

02/12/2026

Nā ‘Ili o Kahe. Here at the start of Black History Month, the lessons not learned, and the regime’s overt attempts to erase what little progress which had been made, sees us at a time when activism is existential. As part of a hui of creatives, with my Kumu Meleanna, we had the profound opportunity to resist with aloha and art, and with the many hands of the ‘Ewa and Wai‘anae Coast. With the guidance of Kumu Ulukoa Duhaylonsod, as a permanent installation through the Wahipana project via the Mayors Office of Culture and the Arts, and over a couple dozen members of the community, we reset the proverbial stones of 5 subdivisions of Ahupua‘a, ‘Ili, on the western end of Hono‘uli‘uli. I will share more specifics in a post later this month after the opening, but for today here are some process steps in a celebratory form of resistance. The land is the final canvas, and every opportunity to empower community to pick up a brush in harmony with the whole, needs to happen now like never before.

02/05/2026

Huki ka niho! When the tooth, or the truth, begins to come out, we enter the realm of the inevitable. Today’s offering is the last batch of a series of works done over the past two months for the upcoming Punahou Carnival Art Gallery, and they have formed throughout this tumultuous time with my ears, heart, guts and mind following current events, with a pang of survivors guilt. This set of works, Huapala 1-4 , the ripening of a fruit, speaks to this time of molting, of husking, of shedding of history at a macro scale. The work I create is initially an aesthetic escape, only to then look back upon “what is” from a vantage point otherwise difficult to attain. An escape for a reprieve, recentering and preparation for reengagement. Along with this work is a sneak peek of what is likely to be one of several community murals in the works, and I will share the rest next week, and all of them at this critical time when we need to strengthen and share the power and beauty of diversity and collaboration. Stay tuned for more, and stay engaged in any way you can.

02/02/2026

Lihilihi, Petals 1-4. We are living through the thick of history, and petals like pages imply the strength of awareness and fragility at once. There are works in progress to address current events through community engagement, but for now I offer work as aesthetic rather than anesthetic. Art has played a pivotal role throughout history during times such as this, and I look to the power of community for inspiration.

01/22/2026

Ka lihi o ka pepa - The edge of the page. Here this week, and for the rest of this month and into February, works of oil on canvas in preparation for this year Punahou Carnival art fundraiser are rolling out of my studio. Like a scientist will set up a screen in the forest to study the insects that it gathers, these works are represent much of what I am feeling and learning, here at the edge of the page of history. Always I am in awe of the creative process, and having found an infinite reserve of internal mystery, I know my purpose in this life and time. I carefully consider every moment of consciousness, recognizing  potentiality and opportunities for balance on the canvas and in the world. These new works are documentation of these times, here at the edge of the page of history, for the purpose of informing all that follows, for the future will need this nutrition. Both works, titled Māiki 1 and 2, translate to “microscopic”, and represent the many new ways we will need to consider history, here shown as nutrition.

01/15/2026

He ‘ino nui. A meditative offering for a turbulent start of 2026. Reflecting on trips I have taken to atolls across the Pacific, I am reminded of the frailty of human and ecological systems, insomuch as our ability to share this sacred sphere. Great epochs have humbled and weathered mountains back into the sea, which reminds me that there are theatres of time by which we can view current events, and there is a temptation to draw hope from this. None the less, such luxurious perspectives are cold and severe, like the looming storm cloud painted here, returning again to pick at the bones of once-were-islands. There is hope here, obfuscated and amorphous, but hope non the less.

12/19/2025

Mōhala i ka pāheona! A new body or work begins to bloom this week, as I build up to my annual offering of original oil paintings for Punahou Carnival Art Gallery in February of next year. As always the work reflects an amalgamation of a year’s worth of inspiration and narratives. Though these are works in progress, they still exhibit a degree of structure and form even at about 75% completion. I will likely reshare them, embedded in another post of fresh art, as I endeavor to only serve up the new things from my studio and drawing board. This said, it’s back to my studio to get these over the finish line. Next week will be something in another direction aesthetically and thematically, giving me the opportunity to keep all the things that grow in my eclectic art-garden well attended:)

12/11/2025

Nā pāheona malalo- underground art in Honolulu and Manhattan!:) Here I decided to wait to post about our community mural in the basement of the Kalanimoku building done with dozens of volunteers (including yours truly) created the day before my trip to NYC, so I could tie it in with an amazing tour of new tile installations throughout the subway and transit areas of Manhattan. With a process as radically different as the part of the world where the art was generated, there is so much to be said for these kinds of community installations and engagement, and critically the budget:) using leftover paint at the Kalanimoku wall, we created an abstract representation of an ‘upena, a net that gathers, holds, and integrates systems such as the work done in said edifice, as it houses the State offices for the Department of Accounting and General Services, and the Department of Land and Natural Resources. One news interview of a participant summed it up perfectly when she pointed out that, and here I paraphrase, at a time of divisiveness and polarization locally and nationally, inviting communities to create art together is so needed. Then we see on the other end of things, epic investments in public art. Amazing works from luminaries such as Nick Cave and Yayoi Kusama left me in awe, and fortunately I have a mountain of canvases waiting at home. To that end, stay tuned for some fresh offerings next week!:) Videoand photo Credit at the Kalanimoku wall to Mamiko Carroll and Diane Ako:)

12/10/2025

11/27/2025

Nā akua ma loko o ka mīkini.

Here today is a continuation of the world-building process which gives me a place to park themes which I intend to gradually explore in depth. Unconventionally, these are themes that I do not covet, but rather share openly for I hope to kindle others to world-build in these directions. So here is a long overdue return to Akua A.I., where Hawaiian deities have gained access to cyberspace to combat and redistribute grotesque and abusive forms of wealth. Merging a bit of William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” and Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” as a narrative vessel, here we see a virtual form of Kamapua‘a in a boar-suit made of discarded computers, on the hunt for anthropomorphic forms of abominable wealth. Simply put, billionaires and by magnitudes trillionaires should not exist, and the worship of money is a universal and historical sickness. From a narrative perspective, there is so much here to explore, as I ponder upon how all the other ancient divine beings from across the globe wold join forces in the digital realm. To wrap this all up into a slightly cheesy working slogan- “I would rather be a poor person in a happy world, than a rich person in a crappy world”:)

11/17/2025

E ‘imi ana i loko.

This weeks brief offerings are works in progress, and distinctly a contemplative challenge to work on some non-objective oil paintings while alternating with illustrations in the realm of speculative Pasifika. Both processes are in a way on opposite sides of my practice, but there is a lot to be gained from moving between the two. With this said, I am going to dive back down into my work, leaving with you all with these nearly ripe oils, and a host of drawings in their ghost forms. Finished manifestations next week!:)

11/06/2025

He kamakani hou!:)

In this spirit of hopeful change, I am excited to share that several opportunities have begun to dovetail that will avail me the chance to return to my world-building/activist-escapism tendencies:) Pasifika Fantasy, Sci-fi and Futurism are such fertile oceans to produce within, what with being a third of the Earth’s surface, and as a way to cultivate new story-islands and ecosystems, I have shared and will continue to share these conceptual offerings for others to propagate along with me. Though all these wanderings, these are some of the principles at the top: Fantasy as a way to see that consciousness and science is magic enough, all stories have the opportunity to offer societal nutrition, imagination is faster than the speed of light, and the only limits to our potential as life-forms is time, and those that we we place on ourselves.