Local artist spray paints life into our oral history

A Ngaruawāhia spray paint artist is bringing our oral history back to life.  26-year-old Jardine Kaata uses his artistic skill with spray paint to breathe life into our local legends.  Jardine’s most recent wall mural was about the legend of Te Pura, the friendly taniwha who lived about 100 metres upstream from the road bridge over the Wairoa River in a deep hole near the bank of the river on the Tauranga side of the bridge.

Jardine admits, Te Pura was also his biggest challenge.

“I don’t like heights!  But this was my largest mural and my biggest challenge because I was up on scaffolding painting for 4 hours while my partner was taking photos.  But in the end, she jumped in as always to lend a helping hand and we completed the wall mural on time,” he admits.

Jardine left his job at an Aluminium factory earlier in the year and began spray-painting canvasses and banners to get money to tie him over while he looked for another job.  However, spray-painting quickly evolved into a full-time job.  Jardine says the Te Pura venue was a venture park for kids so it was a friendly environment to paint in.

“I also got the feeling, Te Pura was a friendly taniwha because as the story goes, when the young men stole his eggs, Te Pura took them back without revenge.  He was always helping people so I took the initiative to paint this feeling into his character,” Jardine says.  

“I come from Waikato and I grew up with our own oral history about taniwha: Waikato, taniwha rau, he piko, he taniwha!  The Waikato river with a taniwha on every bend of the river.  So when I was approached to spray paint Te Pura, I approached the mahi with heaps of respect for the iwi and their taniwha.  I quickly realised this taniwha became a friend of the iwi.  Te Pura always kept a watchful eye over the kids when they went swimming in the river and if one strayed too far out into the deep, Te Pura was there to nudge the child back to the shallow.”

The workers were on site and Jardine says every now and then they’d pop over to have a look making friendly comments about the mural.

“This was quite a public setting with lots of comments from the public gallery especially the school kids who came for the after-school programmes.  They liked the mural as well,” Jardine noted.

And so did the tangata whenua! But Jardine says he’s always reserved about his murals because everyone has different tastes.

"I’m always self-conscious, always hesitant about what people are going to say when I show them the finished product.  The odd client will ask for changes but by and large, most people are happy.  The hardest part is waiting for a response hoping it’s all going to be good enough.  That’s the buzz!  But everyone here was supportive,” he says quietly.

Most of the time I paint at home and work with clients via social media.  Other times, I work in people’s homes painting their nurseries for the kids.  But it’s a completely different experience spray painting murals in the public arena.  You’re in the limelight where everyone is witness to your art form that evolves as you paint,” Jardine points out.  

Jardine has been spray-painting pieces of wood at home since he was 15.  But it all started at college.

“I was initially motivated by a guy called Dallas Mihinui who came to my school at Fairfield College twice a week to take us for graffiti class.  In fact, I’d been mucking around with graffiti since I was 12 but Dallas got me hooked on graffiti drawings at college.

The other motivation was the Tony Hawk, PlayStation game that had a lot of graffiti on it.  But graffiti was everywhere.  Every month our local dairy had new artwork on their wall near the shop,” Jardine remembers.

“The colour combos motivate me.  When clients give me great colours to work with like pink and purple with a splash of green, I’m into it. Rasta colours are great to work with too.”

“A good story with the right colour combo helps me to see the images in my mind.  I paint the pictures in my mind and then spray paint them onto the canvas. I normally freestyle the letters but I’ll sketch the characters on paper first, like the birds and fish in the Te Pura mural.” 

“Painting memorials are pretty special.  When my partner’s cousin passed away, my partner’s Mum wanted a memorial painted on the back of her garage.  That was a special painting.”

I get heaps of encouragement from the whanau.  My Mum is a big fan she loves my paintings!  My partner gives me huge encouragement she helps to choose colours, she takes photos of my artwork and she’s my travel buddy.”

“I enjoy painting wall murals.  In fact, I’d like to paint forever, it’s a buzz.”

“Today, an artist that I look up to is Charles Williams aka Phat1. I like his work; he paints with his wife.  Check the brother out!

Whether it’s a slice of our oral history you want to bring alive; a birthday greeting to your bestie; baby nurseries; a local sport’s team promo or a memorial message for a loved one who has passed on, Jardine Kaata will etch your memory into canvass or onto a wall mural.  You can reach Jardine @yokedcreative.