The Hawaiian Islands - from The Story of Pineapple - Vintage Pictorial Map by Stephen J. Voorhies c.1939 - Japanese Unryu Rice Paper Art Print 24 x 32 in

Pacifica Island Art uses an environmentally-friendly Unryu Japanese rice paper made by the Awagami Factory in Tokushima, Japan. Unryu, which translates to 'cloud dragon paper' in Japanese, features long strands of kozo fiber and is made from natural mulberry and hemp fibers using traditional Japanese Washi techniques - ABOUT THE ARTIST - Stephen J. Voorhies - Stephen J. Voorhies (1898-?) was a popular muralist, pictorial mapmaker, book illustrator and painter from the 1920’s well into the 1960’s. Of Dutch descent, he was born in 1898 and grew up in the New York area.  After serving in the U. S. Navy, Voorhies attended the Pratt Institute in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn, studying Art and Design.  Graduating in 1922, he quickly earned a reputation as an artist able to work in any medium. Voorhies loved the then-popular concept of pictorial maps and murals — filled with busy scenes of trade, industry and the bustle of rural and town life. In 1928, Rand McNally hired him to produce a pictorial map of New England, featuring shipping, railway and bus lines.  “Compared with pictorial maps of the time, this one was relatively conservative in color and design, but the steam locomotive blasting out of western Massachusetts gives the map considerable drama.'  Good reviews of this map led to commissions for more high-profile commercial works. Through the 1940’s, and 50’s, he created a series of commercial posters for the Central Vermont Railway, featuring the Mount Mansfield ski resort at Smuggler’s Notch, Vermont.