Looking for “low brow art” in a t-shirt?

This is how Boottopia was born.  Mixing a love for “low brow art” with traditional techniques and Hawaiian cultural undertones.  Fun t-shirts, great story.

Mark Boots Keahi ‘A‘amau Pio ‘Ole i ka Poli o Pele Lupenui is a native Hawaiian artist, illustrator and graphic designer.  Influenced by American popular culture and the kustom (sic) movement rooted in the America of the 1950’s and ‘60’s as well as his native Hawaiian culture, he strives to create strong, thoughtful images of Hawai‘i and Hawaiians so that our children might gain some pride in their culture and heritage.

His current passion is mixing his love of “low brow art” with traditional techniques and Hawaiian cultural undertones, although he continues to expand his field of view.  In this way, he is always expanding his world, populating it with ideas, projects and products that serve to stimulate his creativity.  This is how Boottopia was born. Here’s what Boots says about himself in his website description, “Boottopia is not so much a place as it is an idea – a social experiment, really. Boottopia is an ongoing heap of whatever puts the shama-lama in my ding dong, the oom-papa in my mao mao, where I filter ideas and images through my own screwy lens and then put them on display.”

Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Boots has done design and illustration work for private and corporate clients in the United States and Japan, including the Kamehameha Schools, Kamehameha Publishing, ‘Aha Punana Leo, Walmart, ABC stores, Honolulu magazine and various other publications.  Although he is primarily self-taught, in the last few years he has studied with renowned artists and teachers Snowden Hodges, Norm Graffam and Jonathan Busse, who introduced him to the beauty of oil painting in the traditional style of the European masters.

His oil paintings and drawings can be found in private as well as corporate collections.  He was a 2004 national award recipient for Sappi’s “Ideas That Matter” and was also awarded a John Young Scholarship prize in 2006.  Boots has been a featured artist in the “First Friday” gallery walk in downtown Honolulu, and his pieces can currently be found through Cedar Street gallery in Honolulu. His work has been seen in the prestigious “Artists of Hawaii” show at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, as well as the “Hawaii Artists” exhibit at the Bethel Street Gallery.

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