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Cruiser
Art Gallery
4450
Kula Hwy #736
Kula Maui HI 96790 |
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Telephone
Orders
800.824.9427
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Meet the Artist -
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Cruiser Art is the proud creation of two long-time
friends, Maui artist Darshan Zenith and Maui
businessman Steve Rummel. Together they have created
and perfected a unique art form that combines the
best of automotive art, surfing art and Hawaiian
art. Although some tend to focus on one aspect of
the art (such as the make of the car, a particular
surfing beach or perhaps the Hawaiian sunset),
everyone agrees
that Cruiser Art is definitely greater than the sum
of the individual subject areas it encompasses.
Darshan's diverse credentials extend far
beyond canvas and brush. His art experience
includes designing and building special effects
models for movies, television and
commercials. Museum art has also been one of
Darshan's lifelong areas of interest.
He has
worked with a number of museums in various
capacities, among them the Lake Elsinore
(California) Museum. There he designed,
constructed and painted many of the museum
exhibit backdrops.
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One
of Darshan's most interesting "non-beach" art
experiences came while living in the Gold Rush country of
Northern California. To attract more tourism several small
towns in the area refashioned their Main Streets with Old
West building facades and storefronts. Darshan played an
active role with several of these communities. "I
especially enjoyed researching the historical signage and
then painting storefront banners to look as if they had
weathered the elements for a hundred years. With our Cruisers
I only have to add fifty years of exposure to the elements
-- however I have the additional challenge of also adding fifty
years of wear and tear imposed by Mankind behind the wheel!"
Darshan's life took a fateful turn when by pure
happenstance (known locally as "Maui Magic") he
and Steve met and Cruiser Art was born. "In so many
ways Cruiser Art is the culmination of all that has come
before, both in my life on the beach and in my life as an
artist. It is definitely my proudest work."
Darshan adds that his real gratification comes from
knowing he is presenting an art form that people find fun
and that generates a simple but very genuine "happy
feeling".
Cruiser Art is "feel good" art and it always
evokes a warm positive response -- usually
an audible "neat" or "cool" interspersed
with frequent "awesomes"!
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And Meet Cruiser Art's Co-creator -
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Born
just six months and a hundred miles apart, Steve Rummel and
Darshan Zenith would not meet for nearly a half century.
Steve has lived in Hawaii for forty years and brings a
successful business background to Cruiser Art. By
chance encounter the two Mauians met in the quaint little beach plantation town of Paia.
Their shared love
and appreciation for the "beauty and character"
of the island's weathered and forlorn old beach cruisers forged an
immediate bond between two very different personalities --
a bond that spawned Cruiser Art.
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Steve and Darshan immediately recognized the need to capture
and preserve the dinged and rusted beach cruisers
that still populate many of Maui's beaches. "Darshan's
welcoming of my ideas, input and
occasional criticism speaks volumes about his comfort as an
artist. While Darshan is definitely the
artist, his openness in acknowledging our co-creation of the concept as
well as my ideas and suggestions related to our individual art
pieces is genuinely appreciated." |
Steve handles the business aspects of Cruiser Art,
including its retail marketing operation. He also
serves as the artist of the written word, including
"helping" each Cruiser recount its own nostalgic
Auto Biography. In addition he built the Cruiser Art
website and serves as its webmaster. "I knew nothing
about computers and even less about building a web site.
But back at the turn of the millennium it
seemed unimaginable not to learn how to use this marvelous
new Internet medium to both share and market Cruiser Art
worldwide -- which is exactly what we have had
the enjoyment of doing ever since".
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