EcoZeal

Claudia Johnson, of Haiku, is exhibiting her “Queen’s Cape” sculpture at the Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center through January 19th. Johnson lives on 40 acres that she calls Art Farm Maui. Her acreage near Twin Falls features banyan, Christmas berry, mango, milo, coconut and other palms, and the trees whose branches are incorporated in her “Queen’s Cape” sculpture – koa, strawberry guava and Java plum. She says:

“When we have storms, we lose a lot of branches. I primarily use materials that have fallen naturally; there’s an ecological / environmental perspective I am trying to bring into the gathering of my materials. I try to use what’s right in front of me.”

For her sculpture, she cleaned, cut, stained and varnished hundreds of branches. She crocheted 22-gauge brass wire into a net form reinforced with 1/8-inch welded steel rod. She drilled a hole in the end of each branch; then wired them individually in a thatching pattern starting from the bottom of the crocheted form.

Exhibiting in Hawaii and on the Mainland for a quarter-century, she has been an invited artist at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawai’i State Art Museum and Contemporary Museum in Honolulu. She has received the Art Loft Donors Award, Art Maui Image Award and two Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and Arts purchase awards. She has been commissioned by numerous isle corporations including Makena Bay Properties on Maui, Kukio Resort in Kailua-Kona, and Okoa Inc. on Oahu.

Valley Isle residents can view Johnson’s works among the 280-piece art collection at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea. Her series of 5-foot-square sculptures entitled “Wave,” “Water,” “Moon” and “Currents” is mounted in the fifth- and seventh-floor corridors. The four sculptures incorporate strawberry-guava branches intricately stained, varnished, woven and wired together.

“Since living in Hawaii, I’ve developed a fuller sense of responsibility for the environment, along with a heartfelt love of this land and a deep respect for the Hawaiian host culture,” she said. “My work strives to touch on the essence of these values.”

Source: MauiNews.com