Make-A-Wish

Client: Make-A-Wish Hawaii
Service: Murals
Type: Commercial Indoor
Coverage: Full
Detail: Deluxe
Location: Honolulu, HI
Square footage: 100 sq ft

The Make-A-Wish team in Hawaii creates life-changing wishes for children living in the state, as well as kids who wish to come to Hawaii. They wanted a feature wall for Zoom calls that gets kids excited about Hawaii.

Design Concepts

The mural for the Wish Assist wall captures the beauty of Hawaii and all the fun experiences that await kids coming from the mainland. The Make-A-Wish team and I discussed a list of Hawaii landmarks to feature: Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor (the Missouri Battleship and the Arizona Memorial), Akaka Falls, Ko’olau Mountains, Makapu’u Lighthouse, surfing, tropical plants, coral, and wildlife.

I created pencil sketches with two different compositions. The team picked the one on the left as their favorite. Then, I digitized the sketch and added the Make-A-Wish brand colors. Once the color version was approved, I got to work painting!

Installation

The colors I used were mainly the Make-A-Wish branding colors. I just added some darker blues to create contrast.

You can see the allusion to four strings in the ukulele waterfall. Also, I depicted Diamondhead as the top of a tuna fish because the Hawaiian word for the landmark is Le’ahi, which means “brow of the tuna.” My background as a tour guide comes in handy for sneaky double meanings. 🤓

This was a super fun mural to paint! The subject matter is near and dear to my heart. As a transplant to Hawaii, I’ve come to appreciate the historical and natural beauty of this special place.

Final Result

It’s hard to pick a favorite part of the mural because I packed it with so many fun elements. My appreciation for Hawaii’s natural beauty and cultural history added layers of meaning to my design. It was an honor to paint for such an iconic organization!

“We recently moved into our new office and were looking for something unique and cheerful that would capture some of the special landmarks on O’ahu. Siena’s work is a wonderful reminder of the exquisite beauty of our island home and how lucky we are to live in such a special place.

Siena was great to work with - extremely responsive and thoughtful about her design. She was also timely in executing the project. We couldn’t believe something so beautiful was created in a relatively short amount of time.

Our team LOVES the mural, and I find myself going in to look at it several times each day.

We wholeheartedly recommend Siena and appreciate her commitment to creating a beautiful space for our staff. Siena, thank you for making our wish come true!”

Trini Kaopuiki Clark
Make-A-Wish Hawaii President & CEO