Local Color
Sunday, April 15, 2001
WHAT DO YOU GET after 14 artists from Hawaii take a pottery study tour of Japan? A pottery exhibit, naturally. Ceramists work
in charming touches
from Japan tour"Re-Visions: Fresh Start from the 2nd Ceramic Workshop in Japan" is the plain-speaking title of the exhibit. But the show at Bibelot Gallery, above the Kaimuki post office, is quite charming and, naturally, very Japanese.
Don't expect to see only tea bowls and vessels, though. There's a lot more, including small watercolors of the sights of Japan by Esther Nowell, and lack-and-white photographs of temples by Paul Kodama. Plus pottery of all sorts.
Tour organizer Etsuko Douglas shows a pair of ceramic lamps in the shape of tansus (chests). The inspiration came from a Japanese potter who makes lamps shaped like high-rise buildings.
Rochelle Lum has ceramics of small animals doing things Japanese: a ladylike, reclining white rabbit sips green tea; and a pair of best friends (a cat and a rabbit) are engaged in acts of tourism, sightseeing, shopping and eating.
Marie Kodama makes her fondness for the trip perfectly clear with a whimsical coin bank, entitled "Saving Yen for the Next Japan Journey."The trip was inspirational and educational, says Manny Voulgaropolos, a retired University of Hawaii professor of public health and tropical diseases. He made a vessel, "Nagoya Riverbed," of subtle green and blue glazes and textures.
"The most unusual thing about the trip was being able to go to the rural areas where these pottery masters have set up their studios. We got to see where they worked, and how they did things," Voulgaropolos says.
Often, the masters' neighbors would turn out to welcome the Hawaii group, which included a few nonartists. During one memorable evening, an entire village set up a traditional outdoor feast for the Hawaii group. Everything was done beautifully, from the dinnerware made of bamboo to the music played on a koto, the artists said.
"Oh, boy, I can't wait to go back," says Ronald FitzGerald, who plans out radiation treatments for cancer patients at Kuakini Medical Center by day and makes pottery by night.
He was on the first trip to Japan two years ago, and has kept up contact with the Japanese master potters and taken study trips on his own.
"I am just a very part-time hobbyist ... but pottery is my passionate hobby," FitzGerald says. He made a group of bottles and good luck temple tablets inspired by the latest Japan trip.The Hawaii artists visited two of the six oldest kilns in Japan, in Seto and Tokoname, both near Yokohama. They toured galleries and museums, and attended pottery and paper-making workshops.
Douglas, who was born and reared in Yokohama, served as the group leader and translator. She is the ceramics program supervisor at the city-run Ala Wai Recreation Center, and most of the participants on the trips came from the center.
Other artists in the show are: Shellie Avecilla, Elizabeth Clark, Lefty Higuchi, Nori Hoshijo, Dennis Leong, Cathy Miyamoto and Stephanie Teruya.
The exhibit runs through May 11. The gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Bibelot's owners Paul Sakai and Tom Tierney themselves just returned from a trip to Morroco. They bought some unusual jewelry and will be bring it in the gallery for sale in about a week. Call 738-0368 for information.
Gardening Calendar
Suzanne Tswei's art column runs Sundays in Today.
You can write her at the Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, Suite 7-210, Honolulu, HI, 96813
or email stswei@starbulletin.com
