Most of the work I do is rooted in my connection to the land and ocean around Hawaii. While some of the work I do is meant to be lived with, I also make art to fulfill my inner drive for expression. I love to experiment and I think this helps me be a better teacher. Sometimes I do work to practice techniques and explore ideas that I want to be able to teach but all of the work I do is driven by a genuine interest and fascination with the mediums of expression that I play with. Here are some examples of the variety of materials and styles that I have worked in over the years.
I did this piece to demonstrate an assignment that I gave one of my sculpture classes. I was thinking about Marx's notion of "Homo faber" as apposed to homosapien, which is that as a species we are defined by what we make more than the fact that we think. I think that who I am is a combination of the two (what I make and what I think) that's why I did this self portrait of my head and hand. I am a maker and a thinker. The sculpture is a little odd looking but I suppose that's fitting for a self portrait. Stoneware, 11 x 24.
Sometimes I use a model but I didn’t use one for this piece because I wanted to work towards building a 3D map of the human anatomy in my mind. Stoneware, 12 x 23.
This piece uses an abstract form as a three dimensional canvas for painting with glaze. Although the form is modern, the use of color and pattern adds something new. Stoneware, 10 x 13.5.
This is some of my early work in wood. My first wood pieces were sculptural. I enjoyed making them, but I decided to start doing bowls because I wanted to make work that people could use. It is important to me to make work that people live and interact with as well as work that is expressive. Silk oak, 12 x 45.
This piece was inspired by a small hip bone that I found while diving. I'm not sure what kind of animal it was from. It was striking to me that although the bone was a reminder of mortality it was also beautiful as an object. The contrast between the symbolic and aesthetic meanings of the object is intriguing to me. Stoneware, 21 x 30.5
I wanted the dripping ash glaze on these pieces to make the forms feel like they are reaching towards each other. The tilting spouts follow that theme as well. Highfire porcelain, 7 x 34
The snowflake like circles on these pieces are large crystals that grew in the glaze during the firing. Porcelain, 12 x 31.
I don't do a lot of crystalline glazing any more but I spent a few years experimenting with them. Porcelain, 16 x 39.
These sculptural forms were inspired by Hawaiian pohaku kui ai (stone poi pounding tools). The teeth and sculptures are made of clay that mimics the appearance of stone and tiger shark teeth. Stoneware and porcelain, 12 x 18
This is a plate I made that has a photo transfer image of me as a kid on it. The text says, "I wonder how old I was when I stopped being a cute kid and started being a Haole boy." It's a part of a series of pieces I made that are about growing up in Hawaii as a minority. High fire stoneware, 3 x 24.
This is a drawing I did that was based off of a photograph that my friend Juan took. He and his wife swim with great white and tiger sharks all the time. I get nervous for them sometimes, but so far they haven’t had any trouble. Graphite, 15 x 19.
I wouldn’t say that drawing is my thing but I spend a lot of time practicing so that I can teach it to my students. I’ve done a number of wave drawings. They are a good way of refining your ability to represent light, texture and value. Graphite, 18 x 24.
I find bones to be beautiful and mysterious. This is a pencil drawing I did that explores the space between the beauty of the form of a human skull and the discomfort it provokes as a symbol. Graphite, 18 x 24.
This is an image I made by manipulating a photograph I took of a rusty piece of metal that had been spray painted. I like to find beauty in overlooked and neglected objects. I also like to think of a camera and a computer as an alternative to a brush and canvas. Digital media, 17 x 22.
The wood grain on this piece of Norfolk Pine was really amazing. I wanted to make a form that would compliment it. Norfolk pine, 14 x 28.
This is a piece I did to practice sculpting the figure since I teach it. I didn't use a model because I wanted to make sure that I had the anatomy memorized. I enjoy sculpting the human form but it's a lot of work. Stoneware, 12 x 19
This is what I imagine my son Mozely will look like when he tuns 12 or so. I didn’t ask him to model for me because there’s no way he would have sat still long enough. Stoneware, 9 x 12.5
This is one of a series. My idea was to create forms that are somewhere between a living creature and a modern sculpture. I coil built this piece out of stoneware clay. High fire stoneware, 10 X 15.
This piece picks up where I left off with my clay bio forms. I made the shape a bit simpler than I generally do with the clay pieces because I didn't want to distract too much attention from the beauty of the wood grain. Indian almond, 32 x 40.
This piece is carved from monkey pod wood with thorns from a floss wood tree added to the bottom. Monkey pod and floss wood thorns, 9 x 20.
Those are the shells from the legs of actual crabs that I incorporated into this piece. Inside the bowl are a hundred or so claws. The piece is covered in polyester resin. Crab legs, porcelain, polyester resin, 9 x 14.
In general red is a hard color to produce in a ceramic glaze. It's already a lot of work getting the crystals to grow but it is extremely difficult to get red crystals. I was excited when I got this piece out of the firing. High fire, porcelain, 35 x 46.
Polynesian weapons made out of local woods are big sellers here in Hawaii. They are made of the hardest woods and many of the Hawaiian weapons have edges lined with rows of shark's teeth. I like them, but I feel a little uncomfortable about the violence implied in the forms. These clubs that I made out of milo wood have thorns and shark's teeth in the handles. The piece is a reminder that you can not harm another person without hurting yourself. Milo wood, 14 x 30.
This is another plate that I did using photo transfer. This piece predates the work I did with graffiti art but you can see the aesthetic confluence between the two. High fire stoneware, 3 x 18.
I love painting. I took a one year off of school between getting my bachelors degree and starting graduate school. During that time I taught high school and painted. My main passion as a painter is for abstraction. Watercolor, 22 x 30.
The craft of working with clay and wood is very demanding, so when I paint I like let loose and work with unconventional techniques. I used dirt, charcoal, wax and melted pastel crayons to create this piece. It smells like wet earth and citronella. Multi media, 18 x 24.
This is a water color painting that I did years ago. I love the visceral experience of laying down fresh color on wet paper. Water color, 22 x 30.
When I paint I like to play around a lot. I love the emotive potential of color. Watercolor, 22 x 30.
This piece started as a picture of a rusty old transformer box that had been tagged on, painted over and tagged again. I manipulated it quite a bit in Photoshop to get it to this point. I like the way that the rust and layers of paint are a record of the passage of time and people's disparate relationships with the same public spaces. Digital media, 17 x 22.