John Nippolt came to Hawaii in 1973 from California because a friend of his in Hanalei told him it was so beautiful. Also, he said last week, Hawaii is the “;surfing mecca,”; and he was, and still is, a surfer.

“;I came here to do art work and surf,”; he said.

While on Kauai, Nippolt won “;best of show”; in an exhibition sponsored by the Rice Museum in Lihue, with a painting of two Japanese ladies fishing. He also started a wood-carving business, which he continued after moving to Oahu three years later. Also, he said, he worked as a framing carpenter, to “;help pay for the roof over my children's heads.”;

Eleven years ago, Nippolt joined the state Department of Education as an art teacher, first at Kaimuki Middle School, then at Kalani High School, where he now also is director of its art department.

One achievement of which he is most proud was reviving the “;Kalani Art Wall,”; a 170-foot-long wall behind the school that is adorned with officially sanctioned graffiti by many of his art students.

In 2006, he visited Japan for three weeks as a Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund scholar.

In keeping with his love for surfing, Nippolt for the past 20 years has been the creator of the hand-carved winners' trophies for the annual Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.

Age 64—“;but inside around 25,”; he said—Nippolt is a graduate of St. Anthony's High School in Long Beach, Calif.

He also has a bachelor's degree in fine arts and a master's degree in education from the University of Hawaii, and a teaching certificate from Chaminade University of Honolulu.

He is married to the former Candace Grant Corey, a former Star-Bulletin food editor (then known as Candace Charlot), with whom he resides in Kahaluu. He also has a son by a previous marriage, John, 25, and a daughter Lehua, 29.

Mark Coleman: What is your job title?

John Nippolt: I am the art department chair at Kalani High School. I'm an art teacher also. I teach fine arts—sculpting, painting and drawing.

Q: What were you doing before you came to Kalani?

A: Well, before Kalani I was a middle school teacher over at Kaimuki Middle School. But they shut down the art department there and made it half time for an art teacher, and I couldn't afford to function part time. But I'd already gained tenure, and the opportunity came to teach at Kalani, so I jumped for it.

Q: How long have you been at Kalani?

A: I think it's my fourth year, or maybe my fifth year. (Laughter) Time travels, you know. And a lot of the kids here came from Kaimuki, which is a feeder school to Kalani, so I get mixed up sometimes. I've known some of these kids for six or seven years.

Q: How long have you been in the teaching profession?

A: This is my 11th year. Before that, I owned a small business—wood carving. I embellished furniture and entryways. And I've been doing the Triple Crown for 20 years.

Q: The surfing contest?

A: Yeah, that's the North Shore, for the pros. I got ahold of Randy Rarick, director of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, about 20 years ago and asked him if he needed anyone to carve some awards. And he said he'd come by and look at my stuff.

Q: What did you show him?

A: He showed up and I just happened to be working on a 2-foot-by-4-foot piece of a surfer dropping in at Pipeline, and it almost matched the contest poster, except the poster was of a guy going right. Randy was impressed—and Randy's hard to impress.

Q: Are you a surfer?

A: Yes. Over 50 years.

Q: How did you become an art teacher?

A: I wanted to enhance my art career, as a professional artist. I've been painting all my life. I've had a few shows. A lady, a good friend of mine, Connie Wright, gave me my first show. In fact, it was at a party at her house that I got my first commission to do some sculpture, as part of the Art in Public Places program. At the Honolulu Zoo reptile house. I did those geckos there. I think they're still there.

Q: What does your job as art department director entail?

A: Well, I kind of articulate from the administration to the (four) art teachers, and coordinate our ideas and opinions about what changes are needed—just general demands in both directions.

Q: What about as a teacher?

A: As an art teacher, basically I'm offering these people a look at real life. I try to get them into competitions, I try to get them to make money, and before money to get recognition. If they're going to continue in art, they need feathers in their cap. Anything in their resume that says they competed or did well, it's a strength that art departments in higher education want.

Q: How many classes do you teach, and how many students do you usually have in each?

A: Right now I teach five periods a day out of six. One is for prep time. And my classes, which are elective, are packed—meaning 25 to 30 kids each.

Q: Since your class is an elective, why would a student want to take it? Just for fun? Or are there some career possibilities that might open up for them?

A: I think it's both. Also, art is not an easy class. You have on-hand problem solving. They have to come up with solutions that are difficult, because I demand them to think outside the box, and I demand them to think in real time.

Q: What would you say are some practical applications?

A: You have to understand that art informs math, and art informs science. Everything that we touch is art, from the clothes we wear, to the music we listen to, to the movies we watch, to the color of car we drive. It's everything.

Q: How much of your classes are lecture-oriented?

A: The lectures are mostly explanation. I also feature different artists. We learn from the big boys.

Q: Historical figures or local artists in person?

A: Both. I also supervised the Kalani Wall, the graffiti wall behind the school. That was a thing in itself. I had to get permission from the police, the administration, even the custodians. They weren't up to it at first, but it's because it's such a good thing that we've been leaving it up.

Q: That's like sanctioned graffiti?

A: You're darn right it is. But graffiti was the world's first art, you know? Check out those old caves (in Lascaux, France). To this day, those artists have not been outdone.

And some of these kids are really terrific writers—that's what they're called. Before they were called taggers. But they wanted to elevate their position and get away from the gang idea of it.

Q: How long do you plan to keep teaching at the school?

A: That's a good question. I'm writing some books—a trilogy—and I'm getting published, in education magazines. So that's the direction it's going. If it continues that way, I'm going to write. That's art, too.