Post #618443 by TikiTomD on Fri, Dec 23, 2011 1:41 PM

It didn’t occur to me to look before, but the murals adorning the Hawaiian Inn are signed. I snapped this photo today of the artist’s signature on the lobby mural while signing up for the New Year’s Eve party at Ohana Luau...

The first surprise was the date; at 2001, it’s pretty recent. I ran into Wailana who was holding a birthday party today for her daughter, Tiana. She came out to give me a hug, and I took that opportunity to ask her about the mural. She confirmed it was relatively recent. She said there was no prior lobby mural in its place, at least as long as she’s been here (29 years). She also said that she didn’t meet or know the artist.

A bit of searching revealed that the artist was Summer Kuulei Kirn of Ormond Beach. She was born and raised in Hawaii, but is not of native Hawaiian descent. Rather, she’s a fourth generation descendent of a ship captain from Maine who settled in Hawai`i. At the time she painted that lobby mural, she was 71 years old. I found this information in a March 11, 2010 article by Wayne Grant in Hometown News, along with this photo...

That article also goes on to say that the original story for the 1996 movie, “Race the Sun,” starring Halle Berry was hers, and she is credited in the film as a co-producer of the movie. Tri-Star Pictures hired a scriptwriter to rewrite her story, something she maintains was unnecessary...

-Tom