hula paints a floating female on a sunken ship in hawaii while surfing

hula paints a floating female on a sunken ship in hawaii while surfing
all images courtesy of hula

after finding an old sunken ship off the hawaiian coast, artist sean yoro — aka hula — intended to reconsider the dilapidated, vacant vessel as a permanent aquatic artwork. looking at the way the tide crept in and out daily, with the boat emerging from and sinking back into the water throughout the day, hula worked from the surface of a paddleboard to paint  ‘ho’i mai’ (or ‘come back’) onto the rusty surface of the ship. a hyper-realistic portrait of a half-submerged female figure reaches out from beneath the ocean’s edge, her hand casually pointing upwards towards the landscape. while the woman’s face is visible on the boat’s façade, her body is mostly hidden under the water — the perfect placement for her to appear as if she is serenely floating in the surrounding abyss.

the artist stands beside his work ‘ho’i mai’, painted on the surface of an abandoned ship

the dilapidated, vacant vessel is reconsidered as a permanent aquatic artwork

work-in-progress: the arm of the painted figure reaches out from beneath the water’s edge

hulu has worked from his surfboard and painted onto the side of the ship