* You can view part 1 and part 2 of the footage from Avi’s trip to paint a mural in the Marquesas on the web. The video is a biography/documentary of Avi and his work, featuring the tropical islands of the South Pacific and their peoples as it follows Avi and his wife Susanne on their journey. Avi travels to the island of Nuku Hiva and there he paints a large mural on the wall of the newly restored church. Avi recently returned from a trip to the Marquesas where he painted a fresco style mural on the wall of a small hospital chapel. The chapel is in Nuku Hiva, and was originally built in 1962. The following are excerpts from the “la Depeche de Tahiti” and “The Lahina News”:

Painter Avi Kiriaty and his Giant Fresco

The missionary, Eleanore LeClair came from Hawaii at the end of last year to restore the small hospital chapel of Taiohae. She is now pleased by the magnificent fresco that decorates the entire wall of the chapel, painted by Hawaiian artist Avi Kiriaty.

Avi has made a name for himself in Hawaii, and is known for painting scenes of Polynesian life with a unique style-mixing the luminosity of the islands of the Pacific with Marquesean-like symbols. Having traveled through the Marquesas in 1994, Avi dreamed of returning to leave a souvenir there, as Gauguin and Brel once did. His Fresco shows a Christ with Polynesian traits; he is surrounded by sea birds, a Kava plant is rooted by his knees, and in the background stretches Taiohae bay.

Jim Kartes, President of ‘Paradise Television Network, Lahina Maui’ and his wife Nancy traveled with a cameraman, David Hunter, to Nuku HIva and Tahiti to film the artist and the islands. This documentary will be shown on Hawaiian television.

Maui Artist Paints Marquesan Mural.

Lahina-Maui artist Avi Kiriaty was recently invited by South Pacific Islands Ministries and the Marquesan people to Taiohae, Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands to paint a wall mural in a restored historic chapel.

The restored chapel is named “Te to‘u ote a”, or the “Third Day”, because the building was completely torn down and rebuilt in three days by the Marquesan people.

The 12-foot by 18-foot oil wall mural-- the first ever painted in the Marquesas Ialands-- depicts a big image of Jesus in a Marqueasan village setting. Kiriaty and his wife, Susanne, spent 15 and a half days doing the painting free of charge.

It reflects Avi’s style but because of the amount of days and the size of the piece it was done with a Fresco glazing Technique.

“I have been taking a lot from these people. I just wanted to give back something, and when this opportunity was presented, I took it,” says island artist. “The Marquesean people are really beautiful.”

Eleanore LeClair of Honolulu, missionary to the Marquesas Islands, originally envisioned the chapel restoration and recruited Avi. “I was looking for a person who could paint Jesus in the style of the Marquesan people,” she said.