Branching out

A Maui textile artist will be woven into a tapestry of art works enveloping Oahu this fall. Claudia Johnson, of Haiku, will exhibit her "Queen's Cape" sculpture at the Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center from Friday through Jan. 19.

She is among scores of artists involved in the Textile Society of America's 11th Biennial Symposium to be held Wednesday through Saturday at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel. In conjunction with the symposium, a host of Oahu museums, galleries and other venues have mounted collections and exhibits showcasing traditional and contemporary textiles, from Hawaiian kapa and Qing Dynasty imperial-court attire, to extraordinary modern fiber arts. Some, like Johnson's, will be on display through mid-January.

The former 10-year program and exhibits director at Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center, 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.

"When we have storms, we lose a lot of branches," she said Monday. "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.

The 28-year Maui resident holds a bachelor of arts degree in creative arts interdisciplinary from San Francisco State University and a master of arts degree from San Francisco State University, in studio art with an emphasis on sculpture and fiber arts. But she attributes her career to exposure to art in her native Muskegon, Mich.

"I was really lucky I was at a time and in a place where art music and dance were part of the grade school curriculum, all the way through junior high and high school," she said. "I was exposed to all kinds of media and ideas and creative people; so it was a very natural option for me to major in art when I went to college.

"I've always had an appreciation for that because it's not always the case in our educational system today, and children definitely benefit from a really strong art curriculum. Unfortunately, it's usually the first thing to be eliminated when funding is cut."

Johnson said the Fiber Artists of Hawaii exhibit has allowed her "to combine several personal and cultural influences that have affected my art making and values over the years: my history and education in fiber arts, my involvement with natural materials and hand-built constructions, and my admiration for the art forms of the Native Hawaiian people - their thatched structures, their kapa, lauhala mats, and especially their feather and ti-leaf capes."

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.

Her art is characterized by meticulous finish work.

"I appreciate fine craftsmanship, and I don't consider it labor," she said. "I really enjoy the process of my work, and I've developed a way of working, a practice that is always interesting to me. The gathering and being out in nature, the cleaning of materials - it's all engaging. And any chance to be out in the Maui countryside is pure pleasure.

"Likewise, the process of building my pieces is a creative adventure. I never repeat myself but experiment with new and different forms and ideas; so I am always figuring out how to make it work, which is exciting and challenging. There aren't very many things I enjoy doing more; so time in the studio is precious time, time that I cherish."

Johnson's life is a tapestry of the tropical vegetation in Haiku, a lifelong immersion in art and a kinship with the indigenous culture.

"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.

" 'Queen's Cape' embodies that yearning to walk and live lightly on the aina, to open ourselves to a deeper, more sensitive relationship with this land, and to understand our ultimate potential to affect the world we live in."

* Kekoa Enomoto can be reached at kekoa@ mauinews. com.