(Instrumental music) Narrator  Today on Spectrum, we're given a lesson in the  secretive art of Hawaiian quilting.

Original   designs and native methods were once protected  and covertly handed down through the generations.

Today, we have a rare opportunity of watching a  Hawaiian quilt creator at work.

There is another   well kept secret in Hawaiʻi, the Madge Tennent  Art Gallery.

An attractive showcase for the work   of a renowned artist, the Madge Tennent gallery  may be hard to find, yet it's easy to enjoy,   but first Spectrum ventures up the lush Nuʻuanu  Valley into the garden of Honolulu's premier   gardener, May Moir, an author of books on  horticulture and flower arrangement.

May   Moir has provided the Honolulu Art Academy  with floral compositions for over 20 years.

May Moir A garden is never, never finished.

It is, well,   it's like your wardrobe.

You don't wear the same  clothes forever and ever, they wear out.

You're   tired of them.

You wish they you never saw them  again.

Plants are very much the same way.

You,   you don't have use for something.

You kind of  thought it was pretty when you first saw it in   somebody else's garden, and you brought it home  and you grew it, you found it had bad habits.

It advanced where you didn't want it,  or else it was a sickly thing and it   wasn't worth the trouble.

(Instrumental  music) When I was about seven years old,   the next door neighbor was a woman who had no, had  a daughter who was grown up and working in town,   and she was all by herself all the time, and I  was an only child.

So I used to go next door,   and I called her Grandma Hall, and she was  a great garden.

She just grew everything.

And I tagged along and said, Why?

Why?

Why?

And she let me plant things and help her,   and I guess I was a pretty good little helper.

I  learned a great deal at that time that is still   with me.

I remember exactly everything  that was in her garden and what she told   me.

So it shows that when you teach children  when they're very young, they never forget.

The garden is part of me.

I mean, if I see  something somewhere, I think, ah, could I   use that?

Is there a place that I could use it?

Because that looks like a useful plant.

I'm always   thinking of my garden.

Maybe, as you get older,  maybe you want a little more peace, and green is   a very peaceful color.

I'm always hatching new  ideas, and my mind is very creative, and I can't   help but see something and think what would happen  if I turned it upside down, or if I did it another   way, or if I combined it with something else.

You  know, we have a certain standard - things that   are available, you know, the certain heliconias  that are available a great deal of the year.

(Instrumental music) Narrator  From the garden to the gallery, May Moir finds  a place for flowers with a style all her own.

May Moir Keep it very simple to begin with.

Don't just keep adding things because they happen  to be about the same color or something, and   because you think they're kind of pretty.

There  should be some sort of general feeling, Not more   than three or four items in an arrangement, unless  it's just an old fashioned bouquet, where you've   picked all sorts of things in the garden and just  make a big smudge.

Your construction is just like   a house if you don't have the proper framing,  or if you're going to have a big building,   if you don't have structural steel, it's going  to be like some of those buildings in, well,   in some of the poorer countries, they just sort  of build up on top and when there's an earthquake,   the whole thing goes.

Well, that's the way a  flower arrangement has to have good underpinnings.

And as far as ideas, if I feel kind of like,  oh, what can I do?

I will flip through old   notes and slides, and there is a right and a wrong  side of a plant.

If you cut a branch, you learn to   look at it and you use the side that faces the  sun, not the backside of it.

And that's always   upsetting to me.

When I see somebody has put it  in the wrong way, I can see it in a second.

So   it must all be together as one piece of sculpture.

When you speak of Japanese flower arrangement, you   really are speaking of their Ikebana, which is a  whole school of thinking and arranging.

There are   very strict rules to that school.

A lot of us have  taken parts of that and used it in our own work.

I   went and studied Japanese flower arrangement with  a Buddhist priest.

I have my credentials in the   old Ikenobo School, which is the oldest school,  and it's great discipline.

It's very fine thing   to have learned.

But it isn't enough.

I mean,  I don't like the fetters of it, I would I don't   want to be held down.

I want to do my own thing.

I paint the picture the way I want it.

And I like   the big things, and that doesn't fit in with the  Japanese flower arrangement, particularly the big   heliconias, bananas and things like that.

I like  to work big.

My plants have taught me a great   deal of respect.

I know that I must give them the  environment that they want and need so that they   can grow to their best.

Narrator  Coming up soon is the Madge Tennent Art Gallery.

Deborah Kakalia teaches Hawaiian quilt making   at the Bishop Museum, while Lee Wild oversees  the historical quilt collection at the Mission   Houses Museum.

Together, they share with us  a view of symmetrical beauty in a cultural   resource.

There has been an awakening to the  value of traditional handicraft in Hawaiʻi,   the imaginative patterns seen in Hawaiian  quilts are a demonstration of this living art.

Deborah Kakalia, a master of Hawaiian design, has  drawn upon her garden as a source of inspiration   for her original quilts.

Deborah Kakalia  What makes it more interesting to me is  because I create my own.

See, I work wake   up four o'clock in the morning, and I have a  pattern in in mind, and I design it right away,   before it runs away.

And then by the time day  break, I have the pattern that I want.

And I   usually take my patterns from a live flower,  see.

And some people said, I want this pattern,   I want that pattern.

And so I go and look for the  flower.

And there's some flowers that are so tiny,   but I enlarge it.

See like this, this is kiss me  quick.

They call it kiss me quick, and some call   it yesterday, today and tomorrow.

And it's tiny.

So whatever flower that I have, I take it from   a real flower, then I enlarge it, see.

So like  this, the liko lehua, you cannot create a pattern   out of the lehua itself, because it's the powder  puff.

So I took the bud and then this is all the   bud, that's the way I create patterns.

The  center of your quilt is very important, and   it signifies thecreator.

So every quilt creator  usually have their own center, but mine is the   only one that has the star.

This is Kaʻiulani's  fan.

When she, when she went to London, to school,   she came back wearing the Spanish, using  a Spanish fan and a Spanish comb.

Well,   Princess Kaʻiulaniwas one of our princess.

I think  she's, what you call, she was sent to London,   but she died very young because she had pneumonia.

They did this to remember her.

That's why they   call this Kaʻiulani's fan.

Narrator  Traditionally, Hawaiian quilts were often made to  honor and record events of history.

The the quilts   added color and design to the lives of Hawaiians  and became cherished family possessions.

(Instrumental music) Narrator  Sewing skills for sails and fishnets had  long been known by native men and women,   but it wasn't until the 1820s that the  arrival of Christian missionaries introduced   the concept of piecing and patching fabric  together to form large decorative quilts.

Mission schools set up in the homes  of missionaries taught the New England   quilting style, which has since evolved  into a unique Hawaiian art form.

Today,   these missionary homes still stand holding within  them artifacts that denote the evolution of a   peculiarly Hawaiian style of quilting.

At the Mission House, special projects   coordinator Lee Wild describes a few of the  antique quilts in the museum's collection.

Lee Wild This orange and   white Hawaiian quilt was donated to the museum.

We know that it was made around 1906 however,   the name of the pattern has not come forward to  us.

We know that there are the bases in the four   corners of the quilt with flowers coming out and  the cross in the center, but we are not sure what   the actual name is of the pattern.

This piece  is marvelous.

It's been pieced in several spots   all together.

They must have run out of some of  the fabric.

The next quilt is a blue and white.

This pattern, traditionally is known as the beauty  of Maui, or the Maui beauty pattern.

When this   quilt was donated to the museum, it came with a  pattern name of Kahului breakwater.

But most of   these quilts with this pattern, we'll have a name  designating it as being from the island of Maui.

The stitching on this quilt uses a chicken foot  stitch as the applique stitch as they go around   the area here.

The following the design  manner of quilting is said to be unique to   the Hawaiian Islands.

It's one of the things  that designates the quilts as being Hawaiian   quilts.

One of the Hawaiian flag quilts in the  collection is this marvelous piece that is very   different from the usual Hawaiian flag quilt.

This one does not contain the coat of arms,   but will have the mamo lei and the crown  in the center.

Again, we believe this one   was made in the early 1900s also, it does have  the standards up in the corners of the quilts.

It is widely been believed that the Hawaiian  flag quilt became a very popular pattern,   and was actually created at the time of the 1893  overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.

I think the   prolific making of these Hawaiian flag quilts  at the time of the overthrow of the monarchy was   to preserve the Hawaiian flag, the image of the  Hawaiian flag that the people thought that maybe   this would be lost forever.

Narrator  Hawaiian quilting is derived from New England  methods.

However, as it developed here in Hawaiʻi,   an original style began to emerge.

Deborah Kakalia  Well, the difference between the Hawaiian  quilt and the American type of quilt is   that the Hawaiian quilt, you quilt every  portion, the motive and the outside,   whereas in your American quilt, you only  quilt the pattern down, and that's all,   all the patterns.

But we quilt the whole thing,  everything.

Quilting gave, uh, it relaxes me,   and I sit and I think of good things, you know,  I don't think, you know, as you get older, you   get all kinds, so you forget what you have, and  you think on only of nice things.

Um, I call this   the half American quilt.

Hapa Haole.

The reason  for this is because the center is Hawaiian, and   I'll be quilting the outside like your American  quilt in stripes.

You have to mark it off with a   ruler.

The Americans call it a medallion type,  but I call it half American or Hapa Haole.

The   old Hawaiians do not like to show people what they  know, see.

So I've known women that quilt for, oh,   45, 50, years, but they've never shown the work  out.

They've hidden it.

Yeah, even now they won't   come out and show their work, but I go out and I  show what I know.

Actually, it wasn't a dying art,   it was a hidden art.

A lot of people said it's a  dying art, but it wasn't.

It was a hidden art.

Narrator Madge Tennent   is a famous name among island painters, but  the gallery that houses a collection of her   work is less well known.

Here to introduce  us to the Madge Tennent Gallery is Arthur   and Elaine Tennent.

Arthur Tennent  Oh, welcome to the Tennent Gallery.

Come right on in.

I'm sure you must   have an awful time finding this  place.

It's quite a pilgrimage,   isn't it?

But I think you find it worthwhile  now that you're here, won't you come in?

This very lovely bas relief was composed  by Eli Marozzi, and we feel it just adds,   gives a lot of added elegance to the gallery.

My mother and father, Madge and Hugh  Tennent both commissioned this work.

(Instrumental music) Arthur Tennent  Well, here we are in the magnificent Tennent  Gallery here, with all its fullness and   Hawaiian-ness and exuberance that it has,  affirmation of life, all those qualities   we associate with the Hawaiians.

It was John  Dominis Holt who said, even if the Hawaiians   were to vanish as a race, they would live forever,  ever in the works of Madge Tennent.

Of course,   I can't say too much about my mother's work.

It's obvious.

I never cease to wonder at how   so many people know of Madge Tennent.

She's  becoming more and more worldwide known,   even in Hawaiʻi.

People know of the name  Madge Tennent, but so very few know of this   lovely gallery.

Arthur Tennent  Ah, here's my lovely wife of 40 years.

I'm sure  Madge and Hugh would be so proud to have her as   the director.

She's so dedicated and so sold on  Madge's art.

Now she's going to discuss this two   sided painting.

Elaine Tennent  In a rather extensive program of restoration  we've embarked upon this particular picture,   entitled Hawaiian girl, as one of  the first to be sent for restoration,   and in taking it out of the old frame, you  can imagine our surprise and delight in   discovering that behind the brown paper on the  back was this picture, which was done by Madge   Tennant in Cape Town, South Africa, 50 years  before that time.

So that was a real bonanza.

Everyone is very curious about this picture, and  can hardly believe that the same person did both   sides, because they're so completely different in  style.

And you remember, there was a time span of   50 years in between.

Some people think it even  resembles Madge Tennent, but I found only one   reference to this picture in her autobiography.

Arthur Tennent  This happens to be one of my favorites  of Madge Tennent's, and I think it is,   represents one of her five greatest oils.

And I'm thinking in terms of esthetically,   where you get this sense, this marvelous sense  of form, full form, and this exuberance that was   so typical of her Madge and her art.

Here you  see, of course, the warm colors coming forward,   cooler colors receding, a feeling of  rhythm in the round.

She loved that word,   and expressed it so much in her art.

It's almost  as if it's sculpted, piece of sculpture in paint,   and truly remarkable that on a flat surface, you  get this great feeling of three dimensional form.

She seemed the woman is, wahine is buoyant, just  like she's going to step and bounce right out of   that frame.

Aside from all of that, I recall so  vividly elderly Hawaiian gentleman coming into the   gallery, standing here just transfixed before this  painting, saying, "My God, what exuberance!"

You   know?

And there was for a long time the Hawaiians  felt that Madge was caricaturing them, and about   this time was when the Hawaiians were beginning  to realize that Madge was not caricaturing them,   but was glorifying them.

Now let's suppose we all  go back in the back room here and see some of the   earlier works of Madge's.

This is one of Madge's  few men that she painted.

She did this when she   was only 16.

And it's interesting to note that  on the back of it is the notation, not for sale,   and she underlines that.

So she must prize this  one greatly, and I needn't go into the fact that   there's a great deal of character in that.

And  it's quite obvious she could draw men very well.

Now this one is another one that she did in  Paris at the same age, age 16.

Take special   note of this.

Of their eyes so characteristic  of Madge, all of her eyes, and that is the eyes.

It's old fashioned, perhaps, to say that, but are  the windows of the soul.

But I don't think that'll   ever change.

Madge was asked many times why she  didn't draw more men, and she would just laugh and   say, well, Michelangelo could do it much better  than I can, and besides, I can't paint muscles.

I'd leave the, prefer the round the curves  of the women.

You know, I feel I owe so much   to my mother and father in terms of my singing  career.

They offered me so much support and every   encouragement, so I thought maybe I would sing  one to my father, called The Road to the Isles,   or it's called The Walking Song, and  it's very characteristic of my father,   in that it's just who was so full of zest  and was a great walker.

Here goes the song:   A far croonin' is pullin' me away As take I  wi' my cromach to the road.

The far Cuillins   are puttin' love on me As step I wi' the  sunlight for my load.

Chorus Sure by Tummel   and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go By  heather tracks wi' heaven in their wiles.

If   it's thinkin' in your inner heart the braggart's  in my step You've never smelled the tangle o' the   Isles.

Oh the far Cuillins are puttin' love  on me As step I wi' my cromach to the Isles.

Now this, of course, is most definitive one of  Madge.

It's Kaʻahumanu sunning herself.

Could   you imagine a more Hawaiian face?

Here you have  the high arch of the eyebrows and the heavy lids   and the beautifully carved nose and mouth again,  it seems to float like wings bent down.

And then,   of course, she took liberties with the hands,  a little artistic license, not very much in the   old days, you know, the Hawaiians, the women,  more of the aliʻi, would massage their hands   like my father, my mother gave me all the  encouragement in the world in my singing.

The song I'd like to sing to you is a favorite  of my mother's called the Scottish Love Lilt,   and it does express all the grace, the  gentleness and the lovely line in her work.

Bheir me o, horo van o Bheir me o, horo van ee  Bheir me o, o horo ho Sad am I, without thee.

Thou’rt the music of my heart; Harp of joy, o  cruit mo chruidh; Moon of guidance by night;   Strength and light thou’rt to me.

Bheir me o,  horo van o Bheir me o, horo van ee Bheir me o,   o horo ho Sad am I, without thee.

vermi, oh,  vermi, oh Rohani, vermi, oh saram a without the   music of my heart, harp of joy, O Creech McCree,  Moon of guidance, bind light, strength and Light.

Thar to me, vermeo, Bheir me o, horo van o Bheir  me o, horo van ee Bheir me o, o horo ho Sad am I,   without thee.

Thou’rt the music of my heart; Harp  of joy, o cruit mo chruidh; Moon of guidance by   night; Strength and light thou’rt to me.

ver Me.

O rovani, vermi Oh, sad Am I with Who to thee?