Bring The Funk: Bird Painting by kto ART

As I was painting this crazy looking fella, my Jam Box was pumping a mix of all kinds of songs. I think I just put it on "Songs" on my iPad, so there was a little classical, some Rolling Stones, a bit of Aretha and then that funky bass starts playing and Ben Harper starts singing "Bring The Funk, gotta have some funk!"
Yup, knew that was the name for this one right away...

He's a Hawaiian Crested Honeycreeper and he's bringing the funk while sitting on a budding branch of Puakenikeni. If you have ever had the fortune to smell one of these flowers, you know they are wonderful! When I was going to college on Oahu, one of my friends was a diver (later became a Cirque du Soleil diver in "O"). He made a little money dressing in a tiny garb and diving at Waimea Falls. He would bring me Puakenikeni flowers whenever he remembered and I would keep just one in my car for a week and it would perfume my car with the most heavenly smell. Oh, the good old days!
My mom is one of my toughest critics (but she's usually right too, so I listen) and I showed her this painting before posting today. She said, "He doesn't have a neck!" I had to explain to my mom that, he has to bring it all in and let it sink into his little birdie bones before he can bring the funk to all of us :)

Original painting will be available at Genesis Gallery Hawaii. Contact information is on my website: www.ktoart.com/galleries.html

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