Sunday in the park with Hawaiian painter Paul Nagano

A Balinese temple entrance surrounded by dissolving white festival parasols, a ghost-like figure of a woman carrying offerings for the gods emerges from water and moves toward the sky, a dog howling at a dead moon, a pink lotus dispersed in a burning fire and an artist carving the world in his hands.

All painted in vibrant colors in the joyful manner of a child. Welcome to the richness of Paul Nagano's artistic realm.

These images come from one of Nagano's famous paintings, Where are We Going?, which refers partially to the great Gauguin painting in 1897, Where do we come from, What are we, Where are we Going?

Painted a century later, Nagano's Where are we going? clearly defies his previous post-Impressionist style. It dives into the world where gravity no longer rules, where the sky is imagination, and he plays wildly with symbols in a poetical and metaphorical way.

That was Spring 1997 -- a significant period in Nagano's life, when he turned 60. That alone may be enough to justify his newly developed style. According to tradition in Japan, when one turns 60, it means one has completed five 12-year cycles of life and has thus returned to childhood.

"I wouldn't say that I'm reborn," he says. "That would be too much of a term, but whatever it is, I simply feel freer to paint whatever ideas are buzzing in my mind. In a way, it feels as if I'm becoming a child again."

Indeed, the painting became his breakthrough piece.

Paul T. Nagano was born on May 21, 1938, on Oahu Island, Honolulu, Hawaii, into a Japanese-American family. His father, Don Nagano -- a press and studio photographer -- introduced him to the world of art during his early years.

"Usually, a creative person such as an artist is born into a family who either have a long history of art or a total lack of it. It's always one of those extremes," said Nagano.

After finishing school in 1956, Nagano received a scholarship to study at Columbia University in New York, where he majored in English Literature, a period when he fell in love with theater plays and movies. Among his favorites Broadway plays is Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the park with George -- a Pulitzer Winner for Drama about the story of George the painter and his lover, Dot.

Four years later, after enjoying life as a university student, Nagano undertook three years of military service in Athens, Georgia and aboard the USS Paul Revere, a ship named after the American Revolutionary hero. Joining the Navy seemed to be the right way to indulge his curiosity to see places beyond his comfort zone.

"Since I was born in Honolulu, a speck of a dot in the vast Pacific, I had a heightened sense of my insulation from the rest of the world. I remember as a child sensing there was a great world to be experienced 'out there'. Looking at a map, I'd feel like a grain of sand on an endless beach," recalled Nagano.

It wasn't until 1963, when Nagano enrolled at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, that he begun to discover his passion for art and painting. And among his excellent teachers was Hob Pittman, a renowned artist who emphasized the individuality of his students' works.

Shortly after that, in 1964, Nagano received his first prize for drawing. During the final two years of his studies, he visited Europe twice, once on a traveling scholarship awarded to him by the academy in 1967. Those experiences abroad were and are still vital to his artistic development.

"Travel affords me the pleasure and stimulus of seeing things freshly. When I travel, the dust of my usual routine is washed away and all experience is bright and in some way innocent. And I think one need to always keep one's outlook free of dull habits, and travel help me do that."

Nagano's first public showcase appeared in 1972, at the 75th Annual Fellowship Exhibition held by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Since then, he has regularly shown his work, solo or otherwise, across America from the east to west coast. Major museums, such as the New Britain Museum of American Art and Wm. R. Nelson Gallery are some of the biggest collectors of Nagano's painting.

Mostly painting in watercolors, Nagano admits he is not a risk taker.

"Of course when I was younger, I loved to experiment with other media, be it oil or acrylic. I even used to experiment with three-dimensional art using glass. But then, as I grew up, I found the simplicity of watercolors held me captive, " said Nagano.

Visiting Bali for the first time in 1984, the young Nagano quickly fell in love with the simplicity of the islanders' everyday life.

"I was so used to a kind of life where modern gadgets were part of everyday life, where time was a luxury and you had to rush to go places. In a place like Bali, you just had to get used to the regularity of the cycle of the day."

While living in Bali, Nagano begun to further explore his creativity. Mountains, paddy fields and other Balinese symbols -- monkeys, dogs, temples, checkered clothes -- started to appear in his paintings.

Among Nagano's famous paintings of Bali that have drawn audiences from around the world are Fountain of Healing, Ceremony, In the Garden of No Fear, Secret of Nature, Answered Prayers, Welcoming Dance and The Flying Flaming Singha.

However, Nagano's creativity does not stop there. He keeps pushing his creativity and daringly tests the loyalty of his fans by showing them a series of photo collages, taken during his travels, at Photofusions Exhibition in 1999 held at Bethel Street Gallery, Honolulu. And, clearly taken aback by the audience's wild enthusiasm, he then held the same exhibition at his studio in Boston the same year.

Nagano tells how he enjoys theater and movies of any kind. His most favorite recent movie was Spy Kids.

"Amazingly enough, I really liked the movie. It's not my kind of movie, but the idea behind it is great. It takes children seriously, unlike in other movies where kids are sometimes belittled."

Deep down, some of us still have that inner child spirit intact. It is by seeing the world through the eyes of a child that Nagano manages to keep his creative mind alive.

"I don't know where this particular path in my life will take me, but one thing I know for sure, I will always be impatient to get to the next stage, to the next painting, the next exploration of unknown territory in the world of art."

-- Vivid N. Savitri