Rehab patients’ art exhibited at store

Twenty works of art by patients at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific will be exhibited at the Louis Vuitton store at Ala Moana Center Monday through next Sunday.

The company established the Louis Vuitton Creative Arts Program at the hospital in 1994.

Since then it has provided art therapy to hundreds of people recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries, strokes and other conditions.

"This program continues today to provide a venue for healing, creativity and self-expression through art," said Dale Ruff, regional vice president for Louis Vuitton Hawaii.

Art instruction, offered to patients and former patients, is designed to serve as a creative outlet for those coping with the physical and emotional issues associated with a new disability, according to Ko Miyataki, president of Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific.

"Oftentimes patients are homebound. It gives them an opportunity to get out and socialize," Miyataki said.

There are about 60 active participants. The patient-artists were asked to interpret Louis Vuitton’s newest advertising campaign, "Where Will Life Take You?"

Ruff said a 90-second video clip on the theme that was shared with the participants speaks "specifically to the journey, discovering not only new places, but discovering yourself within the journey."

Artwork by Rehab patients has been displayed at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and other venues and has garnered various awards.

Trailer out on movie shot here last year

After almost a year of wondering what Peter Berg filmed in Hawaii when he shot his $200 million "Battleship" last summer, the director has released the first trailer for the board game-turned-blockbuster.

It looks pretty cool, too.

The two-minute, 10-second clip shows off a bit of Hawaii, a lot more of the Navy, which let the director use its warships, and the acting talents of Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker and Liam Neeson.

The story of an alien invasion stars Kitsch as Lt. Alex Hopper, an officer assigned to the USS John Paul Jones. Decker is his fiancee and the daughter of Neeson’s character, Admiral Shane. Alexander Skarsgard of "True Blood" and singer Rihanna also star in the movie.

Berg filmed in and around Pearl Harbor, including on board the decommissioned battleship USS Missouri, which is now a memorial berthed at Ford Island. He even had the ship towed out to sea for exterior shots.

The film from Universal Pictures, which also shot in Louisiana, is set to open in theaters on May 18.

See the trailer in Mike Gordon’s Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com.