Polynesians Culture

I tossed my job to my hungry friends and set sail for Tahiti . . . where the happy failures go. Edgar Leeteg **** Hawaiian tourists in the '40s and '50s loved Edgar Leeteg's black velvet paintings--Polynesian figures, mostly nude young women, with a spooky luminosity created by careful brushing of bright paints into the rich pile. "I remember seeing his paintings in bars," Los Angeles artist Les Biller said. "The nudes were of high quality.

I tossed my job to my hungry friends and set sail for Tahiti . . . where the happy failures go. Edgar Leeteg **** Hawaiian tourists in the '40s and '50s loved Edgar Leeteg's black velvet paintings--Polynesian figures, mostly nude young women, with a spooky luminosity created by careful brushing of bright paints into the rich pile. "I remember seeing his paintings in bars," Los Angeles artist Les Biller said. "The nudes were of high quality.

Imagine lush, green islands surrounded by coral reefs, aquamarine lagoons and coconut tree-lined beaches being home to people so isolated that their nearest neighbor, American Samoa, lies 300 miles east. Each week, only one airline arrives from the outside world (Fiji) and telephones are only available for two-hour periods, twice a day. Local newspapers don't exist and only three hotels are in business.

The huge altar and its towering stone statues have been meticulously reassembled and now stand silhouetted against a seascape of craggy cliffs and crashing waves, a sight unseen for centuries. With their backs to the South Pacific, the monolithic icons evoke the forsaken gods of a culture that was devastated long ago and remains shrouded in tantalizing mystery. But the people of isolated Easter Island are focused on the present as much as the past.

The huge altar and its towering stone statues have been meticulously reassembled and now stand silhouetted against a seascape of craggy cliffs and crashing waves, a sight unseen for centuries. With their backs to the South Pacific, the monolithic icons evoke the forsaken gods of a culture that was devastated long ago and remains shrouded in tantalizing mystery. But the people of isolated Easter Island are focused on the present as much as the past.

Imagine lush, green islands surrounded by coral reefs, aquamarine lagoons and coconut tree-lined beaches being home to people so isolated that their nearest neighbor, American Samoa, lies 300 miles east. Each week, only one airline arrives from the outside world (Fiji) and telephones are only available for two-hour periods, twice a day. Local newspapers don't exist and only three hotels are in business.