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By Nadine Kam
Star-Bulletin
WATCHING Rochelle Lum work, Cinderella comes to mind. It's not just because of the soot that blackens her fingertips as she works around garbage cans shooting flames after a raku firing. It's because of the gentle way she sculpts and prods lumps of clay, allowing them to take the shape of whimsical garden sprites or cute, smugly satisfied animals, of the sort that have followed her home ever since she was a little girl.Just as the birds and mice in the Disney version of the fairy tale helped "Cinderelli" sew her dress and get to the ball, Lum's dog Kiki, her muse and helper, assists her, eagerly picking up tools that roll off the table.
"I never thought of myself as Cinderella," Lum says, "but I remember watching it and thinking, 'That's just like my house,' with all the animals."Her menagerie included white mice and guinea pigs, refugees from classroom science projects.
"Remember the Farm Fair? They'd give away colored chicks, so we had green chicks.
"My parents were really good about letting me keep animals in the house. Rabbits would gnaw on the legs of chairs and TV cords. My parents would just say, 'You better start cleaning up this mess.' "
The creatures' bold, sassy, loving personalities were committed to memory and resurface today in gleaming, polished form in Lum's art work.
She opens a solo show at Bibelot Gallery tonight. Each show is vindication for the soft-spoken artist.
The real Kiki snoozes while the artist brushes
the ashes off a newly fired raku pig.
"When I first started, people would tell me, 'Oh, you'll never get a show because your pieces aren't serious,' and my thought was, 'Why should it be serious? Why can't it be fun and whimsical?"The way animals sit or lie, the way a cat can scrunch itself up -- my friend's cat can do it so it looks like a little meat loaf -- is so interesting to me. It amazes me how flexible their bodies are. They can tuck their feet in so you don't know where they begin or end.
"Through animals we can experience and enjoy simple joys of life. They make us smile and laugh. That's why we have pets."
Lum's earliest memory of combining animals with art came in kindergarten, when she fashioned an elephant from clay.
In the fourth grade, her parents gave her a choice of attending the Academy of Arts or sewing school. The choice was easy. "I hated to sew," said Lum.
Lum moved from Honolulu to attend Mills College in Oakland, Calif., where she received a B.A. in Art Technique/Fine Arts in 1979. She moved back to Hawaii in 1981, participating in juried shows and working as a free-lance arts instructor at the Arts Center at Linekona.She's taking a break from her teaching duties to work on shows planned through the middle of the year, such as the "Wo/Man and Beast" exhibition running March 27 through April 15 at Linekona.
She annually takes part in tea pot shows and all-media shows throughout the mainland. Many of her nontraditional teapots take the form of what calls "people scapes," figures intertwined and folded into foliage and landscapes. These are inspired by Hawaiian and Asian legends, and simply by being outdoors. A sleeping figure entitled, "The Dream," is based on a Japanese poem. "Lo'i Boy," embellished with the heart-shaped leaves of the taro plant, is a reflection of her husband Burt's attempt to grow taro.
Lum's show will feature 15 works ranging from $500 to $900, including peoplescapes and of course, her zoo.
Lum, whose grandfather was a dog breeder, always owned dogs so could never have a cat around the house, yet cats figure prominently in her work simply because cat people love them.
"Dog people and cat people are really different," she said. "Cat people really seem to like ornamental sculptures. They buy my pieces for their rock gardens or to guard their front doors. They play with them like they're alive. They send me pictures of their pets."
Indeed, a letter from a tabby cat owner reads, "Attila knows you like cats and wanted me to write to you," the gist being that Attila would be flattered to be one of Lum's models.
Lum's inspiration often comes from these photos, as well as other animals with attitude she spots in advertisements, and of course, Kiki, the St. Bernard-German shepherd-Hound poi dog Lum and her husband Burt bought from a pet store 11 years ago after being told she was part cocker spaniel.
Even with her experience with dogs, Lum said, "I believed them when they said she would just be a small house dog. But she kept growing and growing. Everybody said to stop feeding her or take her back to the store, but I'm blessed that I have a big dog. And Kiki's so good. She loves to help and work.
"She used to try to bite the fire (from raku firings). We'd be finishing and look at her and her whiskers would be smoking. She knows better now."
Lum has kept only two pieces of hers. One is "Sweet Dreams," a work featuring Kiki curled up in sleep. This was a gift to her husband Burt. The other is a reflection of Lum in a rare low moment. Even though she said it was created when she was having a bad day, her sense of humor and optimism come through.
"Even my Hare Hurts or Having a Bad Hare Day" is a small, lidded container featuring a bunny in bed, a hot-water bottle on its head.
"I thought it would make him feel better," she said.
"I have fun doing these pieces, and that's the main thing."
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What: "It's Raining Cats and Dogs ..." works by Rochelle Lum
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