Kawena's Pirate Steals Our Heart

A few months ago I discovered an amazing new artist that is doing beautiful things with his work. The young (25 year old) and very talented David Kawena combines the romanticized fantasy illustrative style of Walt Disney’s animated classics with seductive male subjects. I previously posted a series created by David called the “Disney Heroes”. I was happy to write a brief review of the series and we have occasionally corresponded since then. The Disney Heroes series has gained David a large and growing fan base. I’m very happy for him. I was also happy to find a new Disney Hero David created based on the character Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean. This work is the first of the Disney Heroes based on a live action character instead of an animated hero.

The likeness to Orlando Bloom is remarkable. In keeping with the theme of the remainder of the series, Kawena employs an almost monochromatic sepia-toned palette to give it an Abercrombie and Fitch styling. It was fun to see animated characters brought to life this way. Its nice to see Kawena can achieve the same effect with live characters. Kawena’s Will Turner is appropriately costumed in a sexy version of his movie wardrobe. Its as if our rookie pirate decided to shop from the International Male catalog. He’s accessorized with his Aztec gold medallion and head wear borrowed from his buddy Captain Jack. I hope the swooning Miss Swann appreciates his new look as much as the rest of us do.

I have wondered why Kawena’s work has gained popularity so quickly. The obvious reason is that the subjects are very sexy. However, the Internet is full of websites featuring photos of attractive fitness models. David’s work appeals on another level. He interprets the male subject with a non-threatening innocence. The men in Kawena’s artwork are sexy and accessible without being vulgar. Female subjects have been portrayed in this way for years. Romance novels are covered with bodice busting imagery. A sexy, scantily clad woman can look trashy or virginal and vulnerable just by the costume, setting and expression of the model. David Kawena has found the technique to accomplish the same thing with male subjects.

The other key to his success is the cultural shift that has occurred. At one time animated characters were subjects for children. Cartoons were a medium to keep kids entertained on Saturday morning while mom cleaned the house and dad washed the car. But now, thanks to Japanese anime and manga, this artwork has gained an audience that includes the young adult/college-age generation. The saturation of our media with animated characters in video games and graphic novels has developed a very discriminating audience. They are also very comfortable with this media and don’t see it as juvenile or immature. Those of us from the previous generation are charmed by the nostalgia of this work, remembering the fantasies inspired by the original Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Mermaid. It should be no surprise that Kawena’s work has found a large and growing audience.

I would like to extend my thanks to David Kawena for providing me with an unwatermarked copy of this work to post on the blog. It’s a real honor for me to be allowed to post and review his work. In checking my website statistics I have found that the articles written about him are the most visited on my site. The David Kawena search terms are the most frequent entry points for new viewers of the Gemini Art blog. Pages featuring his work receive hundreds of page views per month.

I hope the viewers and readers of this site will respect David’s intellectual property rights and not copy or redistribute his work without his permission. In the email from David, he tipped me off to an upcoming big event. I won’t spoil it for him, but please stay tuned. I will be sure to share the news with you as soon as he gives permission.

David Kawena Does Disney

It seems these days every major male celebrity, model and athlete has to promote himself with the obligatory “fashion photo shoot”. You know who I’m talking about, David Beckham, Ben Affleck, Ashton Kutcher, Mark Wahlberg, etc. The list goes on and on. They spend more time on the cover of GQ than they do on the movie set. It’s not enough that an actor can act. He now has to market himself in some Abercrombie-esque fashion because that’s what appeals to the demographic that goes to movies, i.e. the adolescent teen/young adult population (and gay men). Not that I’m complaining. You know the type of photo I’m talking about. It’s real “artsy”. The photo is usually in black and white or sepia toned with dramatic high contrast lighting. The model is almost always styled in a manner to emphasize his “physical fitness” wearing little more than accessory items. Apparently, even the leading men of Disney’s animated features have gotten into this new A-list actor fad.

I recently saw the latest Walt Disney animated feature, oops I mean romantic comedy, Enchanted. As usual it was amazing. It has great music, a fun story and was a real visual fantasy. While I watched the handsome Patrick Dempsey and the very pretty James Marsden, it reminded me of just how adorable Disney’s leading men are. They come from a long tradition of perfect princes such as Eric in Mermaid, Philip in Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin the Prince of Thieves and even Tarzan King of the Apes. I laughed at myself when thinking about how attractive I thought each of those characters is.

While I was thinking about it I began to realize that the first crush of every young gay guy is probably one of those charming Disney cartoon men. I mean, we feed that stuff to our children as if its American mythology. In a perfect world we want our lives to turn out the way a Disney plot concludes, right? The Disney heroes are beyond perfect. They’re strong, brave, handsome, kind. You can always depend on the guy to come charging to the rescue no matter what. What’s not to like?

For young gay guys who are just starting to feel that they are a little different (yes, it does feel different even in grade school) the Disney hero is a safe first crush. It’s safe because he’s not real. It can be explained away as fantasy, hero-worship, love of Disney cartoons, whatever. The Disney world is so welcoming to young gay kids. When real boys are being mean to the gay kid and calling him names, the Disney fantasy world is so much more appealing. The gay community has a lot to thank Walt Disney for.

So, it’s not surprising that when three worlds collide, the Disney world, the art world, and the gay world, a new and interesting creation is born. I’m leading up to an introduction and explanation of an artist I recently discovered. David Kawena is an artist/illustrator working in Israel. I had been searching blogs and links related to the Enchanted movie and found a link to him. He had written briefly about the movie and segued into a discussion of his admiration of other Disney heroes and his interpretation of them.

I was fascinated that Kawena is located in Israel. I sent him a note asking about what it was like to be a gay artist working the Middle East. I’ve always considered that to be such a religiously and culturally volatile part of the world that it would be dangerous to be a gay artist there. Kawena responded,


“Actually being (a) gay artist, or straight artists who deals with ‘gay’ issues
is pretty much a cool thing to be in Israel! Israel is very open minded and very
narrow minded too - it's (a) mix of a place. We have a lot openly gay artists
here, most of them are on prime time television - actors, fashion designers -
and many singers who are openly gay are at the top of the national charts all
the time. I do most of my work outside of Israel, but that's a different
subject. I could very well be categorized as a straight artist who dose gay
work, or vise versa... You know?!”

As you can see, Kawena’s work is primarily digital media. While the Disney Heroes pieces are a somewhat cheeky pin-up spin on these fairytale characters, I found other pieces of great sophistication. His digital rendering of the late Heath Ledger is breathtaking. So, for those of you art snobs out there that might “poo-poo” the digital media I ask you to reconsider when looking at this work. I certainly couldn’t do any better job with this portrait in watercolor, pastel, acrylic, oil, or finger-paints.

I hope you enjoyed the work of David Kawena. Leave a comment if you did.