Maui's rugged coastline, lush landscapes and energy are a source of creative inspiration for artists. -- Photos by Ian Hutchinson

The line of red brake lights ahead on Hwy. 30 West is no different than everyday mainland gridlock. But this is morning rush hour on Maui, where green mountains rise into low-hanging misty clouds on the right and Pacific waves lap up onto the beach to the left.

The stop-and-go journey on the road to Ka'anapali and on to Kapalua isn't hard to take. It simply provides a bit of extra time to inhale all that is around you.

The distractions can be a little much, though. At various times of the year a large splash out in the water and the brief glimpse of a migrating whale is cause for sudden stops along this stretch of single-lane highway, not to mention frequent accidents, according to locals.

Such spectacle inspires day-dreaming tourists to chuck their current lives and move to paradise. It is mainly fantasy, of course. All but a few will be back on the mainland in a week or two, stuck in less enjoyable traffic jams on the way to work.

But some will stay to explore their "mana," which according to Hawaiian legend is a unique gift or talent bestowed upon them supernaturally.

WINDSURFING CAPITAL

Mana is nurtured in little towns such as Paia on the north shore. Unofficially the windsurfing capital of the world, Paia is an eclectic mix of boutiques, surf shops, cafes and eight art galleries that celebrate the reasons that artists are drawn to Maui.

The mountains, surf and palm trees swaying in gentle trade winds offer artists inspiration to express their mana to those who do go home after stays at opulent resorts such as the Ritz-Carleton at Kapalua or the Grand Wailea, where Ian Edmondson is displaying his sculptures on this day.

Edmondson has been literally at polar ends with his mana. Once more at home in chilly temperatures, the former freestyle acrobatic skier took a couple of World Cup championships during his time on the circuit.

Artist Kenn Briner

"Mostly out of intuitiion, I stopped skiing and moved to Hawaii to be an artist. Little pieces kept adding to it. I'd come here on vacation and meet all these artists. I started doing a bit of art when I was on vacation and back at home," says Edmondson, unveiling a colourful fish made from native lava rock.

"This is what it felt like to leave the skiing world and decide to move to Hawaii and become an artist," he says of the piece. "I felt like a fish out of water. Now, I'm at the point where I realize that you can't be a fish out of water. You just jump out of the boat and the ocean is right there.

"You join the larger current that's always flowing. I totally feel like Maui is a place of cross-currents and I'm here to take the ones that flow through me and translate them into sculpture," says Edmondson, who grew up in Birmingham, Mich.

"The strangest thing for me was that I knew I was a natural artist, so I drew and painted and carved stuff and then, I pretty much stopped for 20 years while I skied. When I came back to it, I intuitively came back to sculpture and I could sculpt better than I could draw."

Edmondson says even as a visitor, he would absorb positive energy from Maui that would translate into success on the ski circuit. He describes himself as an "energy vampire," who constantly inhales the island's forces.

Artist Ian Edmondson

Another exhibitor, nature photographer Kenn Briner, says he too was destined to stay in Maui.

The native of Rochester, N.Y., moved to Maui 10 years ago after spending the previous 10 years as a songwriter in Los Angeles.

"I came here to write songs for a year, basically (in) a different environment. I just wanted a peaceful environment to write songs and see how that would change the music.

"Within the first month of moving here, my house that I was staying in and my studio burned to the ground with me in it. I was trapped inside, so I was, literally, about a minute away from dying," says Briner, who did manage to escape but could not save his instruments from being incinerated.

"To make a long story short, a stranger offered me a camera ... someone I had never met before, but (who had) heard about my tragedy," says Briner.

Artist Ada Horn

The woman who donated the camera was a quadriplegic who couldn't use her hands anymore. Briner says he told her he had rarely taken pictures but she felt the songwriter might be able to express himself through the camera instead of through his music.

Briner says it was almost as if mana was being transferred at that moment as his music career ended when he inherited the camera.

"We were both crying ... and she said I could sell it for a guitar if I wanted, just to get started again in music and I just took it as a sign.

"My only possession in this world was this camera from a stranger. Photography has never been about snapshots and just documentation. It's always been an art form for me."

With all of his work from the previous 10 years now in ashes, Briner decided to take the leap into photography and translate "the creative energy of music into a visual format for the first time in my life."

Within three years, he was displaying his work abroad as well as in the U.S., he says.

"I stayed here with the kindness of a stranger," said Briner, who feels the same energy from Maui as Edmondson. "Maui has so many climates. It's like living in 10 different places at once and everything is within a short distance of each other."

The third artist exhibiting at Grand Wailea made it unanimous. Ada Horn, whose watercolours depict island life, has lived in such exotic places as China, Burma, Singapore and Europe, but now can't think of anywhere she'd rather be than surrounded by the beauty of Maui.

"There's a wonderful, nurturing energy," Horn says. "Maui has that quality. When you paint, you have to be inspired.

"If you could live anywhere in the world, why not choose the most beautiful place in the world?"