INhonolulu Magazine Issue #15 - March 2014 | Page 4

so many new friends and new opportunities out here.”
As for briefly returning home to
enjoy the sun and surf, he stated that
“Pow! Wow! is a good event for Hawai‘i. It’s great that a few people can
get together and organize something
to reinvent Kaka‘ako, which has been
such an ugly, industrial area for so
long. I’m happy to have participated
and had the chance to meet so many
awesome artists.
“I’m curious to see what they have
planned for next year,” he said. ■

ART + FASHION
Profile / Buff Monster

Follow Buff Monster on twitter
@buffmonster.

POW! WOW! 2014 Finished Murals

Photo Essay / Street Art
Photos by Will Caron

Buff Monster and the Melty Misfits
Gary Chun

T

his year’s Pow! Wow! Hawai‘i
was the best to date, with the
fourth annual event of the
gathering of local, national and international street muralists stepping up
big-time to create a fascinating “gallery” in the Kaka‘ako industrial area.
One of those artists was local-born
Buff Monster, who now calls Brooklyn, New York his homebase, after
spending many years in Los Angeles.
Buff took part in two collaborative
pieces: A graffiti-throwback piece
with Cope2, Indie184 and 123 Klan,
and a larger, major piece with Nychos
of Vienna, Austria. (Some of you may
remember Nychos ran into a bit of
controversy at last year’s PWH with
his exposed-anatomical shark painting done with California’s Jeff Soto.
There was some Native Hawaiian
blowback, as the shark is considered a
Page 4

culturally sacred animal, and Nychos’
depiction was thought of by some as
being disrespectful).
Buff Monster’s artistic brand is
a homage to the popular Garbage
Pail Kids trading cards. His “Melty
Misfits” is a parody twice-removed,
stemming from the original Cabbage
Patch Kids, which led to the 1985
Topps Cards spoof conceptualized by
cartoonists Art Spiegelman (of Pulitzer Prize “Maus” fame) and Mark
Newgarden. The “Melty Misfits” are
a collection of goofy and colorful
ice cream-designed scoops of good
cheer. On the Pow! Wow! murals one
“Misfit” is nestled comfortably in the
midst of the graffiti bubbles of Cope
and Indie, while a pair of demonically possessed ones flank either side
of Nychos’ dissected horned demon.
Buff and Nychos’ mutual love for

heavy metal is well-evident in this
latter piece.
Buff said he will soon start of a second series of his “Melty Misfits” cards.
He started his journey into art as
a Punahou School student, while his
family lived in the Diamond Head
and, later, Kahala areas. “I don’t have
any family there (now), just a couple
good old friends,” he said via email
after returning to Brooklyn. “The big
thing I see (on O‘ahu) is more traffic.
It seems to be really bad. I’m also seeing many more national brands setting up locations there.”
Buff made his reputation after leaving the islands to work and live in Los
Angeles. He is one of those artists that
can move between the street and fine
art scenes with relative ease, as well as
being marketing-savvy when it comes
to merchandising. After more than a
decade in the City of Angels, and now
in his 30s, Buff made the move east
because “I was tired of L.A. I wanted
something new. I love N.Y.C. It’s everything I hoped it would be. I have
Page 5