Hawaiian Phone Book Cover
Several people have asked me how I was able to get my painting on the cover of the Hawaii phonebook.
That was truly a lesson in perseverance.
1998 GTE Hawaiian Tel phonebook cover
The first time I visited Hawaii and saw artwork on the cover of the phonebook, I was blown away. I announced to Steve that I wanted to do THAT!
Shortly after that, we moved here. I decided to find out how to make my goal happen. Now, this is not my usual MO. I am not very good at self promotion… in fact, I am very… hmmm what’s a good word for fearful, intimidated, resistant… oh… reticent… nice way to put it. I am reticent about promoting my own work. To say the least. However, for some reason I had a burst of self confidence and went for it.
I contacted Hawaiian Tel and found out what the process was. I submitted photographs of my work and waited. And waited. And waited some more. When I spoke to the wonderful woman who was heading up this project with the president of Hawaiian Tel, Warren Haruki, she kept telling me that they were pushing the selection process back. I was regularly in contact, sending her photos of new paintings that I was doing (remember, I had just moved here and was a bit blown away by how stunning everything was) and little notes to remind her that I was still out here waiting… and waiting… yup, and waiting some more.
Finally, several months later she called on a Friday to tell me that the president was trying to choose between me and another artist. He would have his decision by Monday. You can imagine what that weekend was like.
On Monday I waited patiently (patience also not one of my strengths) until she called at 5:10. It had been a long day. It took all my self control not to scream in her ear when she told me that Warren had chosen my work.
He chose a painting that he felt represented all the islands and not just one specific location.
A couple of days later, Steve and I went in to meet with him to show him the original and convinced him to let me create another painting that would look better when it was wrapped around both sides of the phone book.
He said okay, as long as I could have it done by the end of the week. NOW we were on a tight deadline.
And that’s what I did. I was a painting fool. Boy the pressure not to mess up was intense.
However, big fun!
Now, the hard part.
I was not allowed to tell ANYONE for 6 weeks until the phonebook was released. They had a tradition of not telling anyone what the new cover would look like. So, here I was wanting to shout the news from the top of the Koolaus while doing my happy dance, but I couldn’t tell ANYONE. Needless to say, it was torture.
The painting was unveiled at The Academy of Art during a reception and exhibition of Hawaiian Tel’s collection of paintings representing 25 years of their phone book covers. That was very cool. And very scary. I was terrified of people gasping and fainting in the aisles when we unveiled the painting. Then I was worried about my fainting if they asked me to say anything. Fortunately Warren covered for me.
Thanks for everything Warren!
It was a very cool experience.
And an excellent lesson in perseverance, patience and just a bit of hard work.
Susan
