The work of the late sculptor Michael Tom is featured at
the Contemporary Museum's Biennial Show. Shown
here is "Fading Images."

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REMEMBRANCE

By Suzanne Tswei
Special to the Star-Bulletin

It is an opening scene the artist himself could not have planned better. Two pure white pedestals sit side by side facing the door. On one, a blackened copper vessel topped with a piece of delicate, undulating black bamboo. Titled "Silence," it is quintessential Michael G.B. Tom: exquisite, elegant, subtle, hinting of death. On the other, leis left by anonymous admirers in memory of Tom, who died on April 12 from liver cancer, a month and a half short of his 53rd birthday.

"We don't really know who left the leis there, but it is really befitting. Michael was well-liked and admired," said Georgianna Lagoria, director of The Contemporary Museum. "I am not surprised people came with leis to honor him even though they knew he could not be here to receive them."

"In Blind Site" is made of copper and glass
in collaboration with Rick Mills.

The museum staff made sure an empty pedestal was included among Tom's sculptures at the Fourth Biennial Exhibition of Hawai'i Artists in anticipation of the island tradition of lei-giving, Lagoria said. She left an orchid lei when the exhibit opened last week and others have followed suit.

The biennial showcases the work of six Hawaii artists, but Tom's portion occupies the most floor space. He was too ill to work and made only one piece in collaboration with sculptor Rick Mills, a close friend.

Chief curator Jay Jensen culled Tom's art works from private and public collections, creating a retrospective that gives art lovers a rare opportunity to see some of his major sculptures all in one place.

Some of Tom's best work is here. He refused to sell his best pieces, which went to his estate or family and are on loan for this exhibit. Visitors can see how Tom's art changed course, from the sophisticated and beautiful vessels that first won him praise to dark, complex sculptures addressing the mysteries of life and death.

"He could make things that can really touch people," said his sister, Crystella Kauka, as she recalled how a pair of red-brass-and-copper slippers inspired by the World War II relocation of Japanese-Americans struck a cord in a stranger.

Michael G.B. Tom's "Relocation, Memories
of a Bittersweet Past"

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The slippers -- with barbed wires for thongs and sharp, triangular tongues rising from the soles -- were first displayed at Amfac Center's "Japanese Experience in Hawaii" show in 1985. Kauka said an elderly man stopped her at the entrance to that show, not knowing she was related to Tom.

"He just grabbed my wrist and he told me, 'There is only ONE thing you really have to see in this show. If you see nothing else, you have to see this one.' I had no idea he was talking about Michael's piece until he showed me. He told me seeing it brought everything back, all the sad memories, all the things he hadn't thought about for years. Michael could do that with his art."

Tom's gift in interpreting the dark side of life stemmed from his own difficult beginning. A quiet but intense man, he developed an empathy for the underdog and a distaste for injustice. Adopted at birth, Michael Goon Bing ("eternal light" in Chinese) was brought up by a harsh, eccentric mother and a quiet, laid-back father.

"Our mother was a very strong personality. She was not easy to live with. She was the type that nothing you did was ever good enough for her. But she was a good Mom. She cared about us; she just didn't show it," said Kauka, who also was adopted.

Although his teachers encouraged his talent for drawing, Tom kept his art a secret, knowing his mother would disapprove of an avocation without income potential. He was a poor student until the late in high school when an English teacher sparked his interest in reading. He began to read every night, using a dictionary so often that the covers turned brown.

After a stint in the Air Force, Tom enrolled in Sonoma State University in California, earning a bachelor's degree in painting in 1971 and a teaching certificate for special education in 1973. He returned to Hawaii and began teaching children with special needs.

"He was a wonderful teacher. He really cared about the children. He could really connect with them on a level to help them learn new things," said brother-in-law Kip Kauka.

Tom often spent his own money to buy treats for the students or take them to the movies, he said.

A metalsmithing class at the Honolulu Academy of Arts helped him discover his affinity for working with copper. He then returned to the mainland to study for a graduate degree in metalsmithing at San Diego State University. He met the course requirements and held a graduate thesis art show, but never completed his written thesis.

Tom eventually returned to Hawaii and teaching. Soon his copper sculptures began to win awards and were exhibited in the islands and around the world. For the last 14 years of his life, Tom settled into a contented life with second wife Pamela Simon. Friends describe her as an intelligent and caring partner who nurtured his devotion to art and eased the pain of his illness.

A voracious reader of art, Tom was an authority on the subject but kept his thoughts to himself unless asked. "In the art world, there's a lot of politicking," said Carol Khewhok, a close friend and curator of the Linekona Art Center. "People feel they have to be out there promoting themselves. Michael was not like that. He was not at all pretentious. He cared about the making of the art."

Biennial Exhibition of Hawai'i Artists Gallery: The Contemporary Museum 2411 Makiki Heights Road On display: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 22 Admission: $5; $3 for members and children under age 12. Free the third Thursday of each month Call: 521-1322

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By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Margaret Ezekial captures images of Kauai in pastels.

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A prestigious
art event

No artist is gets rich off The Contemporary Museum Biennial of Hawai'i Artists exhibit. The $1,000 honoraria per artist covers art supplies and not much else. But as an honor, the exhibition is just about the most prestigious an artist can hope for in Hawaii.

Along with the late sculptor Michael Tom, the Fourth Biennial Exhibit at the Makiki Heights museum includes these artists:

Mary Mitsuda: The Oahu painter, whose past work involved richly colored paintings, focuses here on two colors, blue and yellow, and opts for squeegees and fingers instead of brushes. The images are blurred intentionally, although viewers can make out plant forms resembling irises that are tributes to Mitsuda's mother who died two years ago.

Kapulani Landgraf: The Oahu photographer continues on the path of documenting Hawaii's landscapes with an eye toward their cultural, historical and political significance. The black-and-white photographs in this exhibit come from her explorations on Maui, which are continuing for a future book.

R. Chiu Leong: The Big Island photographer uses friends and family as subjects, covering their bodies with white clay and seeking to reveal their individual spirits through portraits.

Margaret Ezekiel: The artist from Kauai has worked exclusively in pastel for more than 16 years, and her mastery of the medium is obvious in her drawings of Kauai's landscapes. She captures rich colors playing against each other with a bare amount of light.

Nelson Flack: The Maui artist is perhaps the least known of the bunch, but his pen-and-ink work is of the same caliber. Using steel-tipped pens and india ink, he draws tiny lines into honeycomb-like shapes that eventually cover a large piece of paper.

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Suzanne Tswei, Special to the Star-Bulletin

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