Connecting people with art

HAWI — There’s a sense of déjà vu but really it’s hana hou.

Tiffany DeEtte Shafto held a grand opening for her gallery, Tiffany’s Art Agency, in Hawi in January. Six months later, she’s doing it again, but this time it’s being called a grand expansion celebration.

The event, open to the public, will be held from 5-7 p.m. July 8 in the larger spot next to Sushi Rock.

The expansion was “totally unexpected,” Tiffany said. It came when Kohala Mountain Gallery’s space suddenly became available and she decided to take the leap.

The acquisition has more than doubled her footprint and allows her to showcase the works of all the master artists. Renovations were recently completed by Tiffany and her husband and artist, Timothy.

“It’s been freshly touched everywhere — paint, flooring, lighting,” she said.

The gallery’s high ceilings and new beadboard walls have been painted white, and positioned lighting spotlights large pieces of hanging art. Bookcase shelves display smaller pieces of wood, glass and ceramics, and a space named the “bedroom” is available for displaying furniture. It currently features a milo wood headboard and coordinating side tables made by local woodworker David Reisland.

A customized corner nook displays a high definition TV that continually runs Tiffany’s contemporary art talk story videos. They give visitors the opportunity to view individual artists that share their stories, demonstrate and explain how they do what they do.

Tiffany couldn’t be more excited about her new palette for promoting Hawaii’s fine artists.

“It’s a fabulously fun job,” she said. “I get to make people happy, collecting art and memories.”

Like many gallery owners, Tiffany was on the art and design side first, working as an interior designer for clients in the San Francisco Bay area. Tim had a successful stone fabrication company he’d started in addition to being a carpenter.

When they came to Hawaii in 2004 to follow their dream of flipping homes and creating beautiful spaces, neither had any idea they’d end up in a wood shop together.

“It took a couple of years,” she said, but her appreciation for hands-on and handmade art set her career on a new course. The couple spent the next eight years working side by side making furniture, jewelry boxes and other wood creations which won them awards.

As an artist destined to become an art curator and art consultant, it was a wonderful start for Tiffany. She and Tim met many talented people and were invited into numerous artist studios where they were able to see and understand the creative processes behind the work.

“It gave me such a deeper appreciation for artists, who they are and what they create,” Tiffany said.

It also made her want to document what she was seeing and learning.

“I thought, ‘We need to capture these stories before they’re gone. They need to be shared’,” she added.

So Tiffany did just that, in a coffee table book titled “Contemporary Hawaii Woodworkers; the Wood, the Art; the Aloha” that she co-authored, produced and published in 2009. Her second book, “Aloha Expressionism by Contemporary Hawaii Artists,” was released at the end of 2015 and two weeks ago received Hawaii Book Publishers Association’s Ka Palapala Pookela Award of Excellence for Special Interest books. Freelance writer Lynda McDaniel wrote the stories of the artists in both books.

Tiffany said her first book, along with her volunteer work including serving as past president of the Hawaii Wood Guild & Hawaii Craftsmen, led to an opportunity to research the economic and social impact of Hawaii Island’s visual artists.

From 2012-2013 she created and maintained a website titled the Hawaii Island Network of Artists that served as a resource directory for local artists. Through the project she met more than 500 visual artists “which proves how rich this island is with artists,” she said. She has continued the project as a non-juried site and resource directory.

Networking and newly forged friendships led her to her next job as owner/partner of The Gallery at Hualalai in the lobby of the Four Seasons in North Kona. It was then that she finally found “it” — that thing she was meant to do for the rest of her life.

“I discovered I love witnessing that moment when someone falls in love with a work of art,” she said. “It’s pure magic when that happens and I love facilitating the process.”

When that gig ended in 2014 she opened Tiffany’s Art Agency, curating contemporary art experiences featuring Hawaii’s master artists for a year at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, which transitioned into an online gallery with exclusive shows and events. The Hawi gallery is now its cornerstone.

Tiffany represents 30 master artists, working in a variety of mediums including bronze, ceramics, collage, furniture, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and wood. She looks for those who are innovative and masterful.

She’s also excited about her husband’s latest work, unlike anything she’s seen before. His mixed-media paintings feature Hawaiian landscapes with mountains, oceans and beaches. The mountains are fashioned out of koa wood and he uses actual sand mixed with resin for the beaches. He makes the ocean and sky by pouring colored resins and manipulating them to where he wants them to be. The result, he says, is “90 percent me and 10 percent chance because I can’t quite control what it’s going to do after I quit working it.”

And therein lies the beauty of the entire creation.

“I love having a front row seat to his creative process,” Tiffany said. “I’m so grateful to that man. He’s given me a much deeper appreciation for all the wonderful artists I work with.”

Emerging from the expanded gallery space, dusty and tired after a day spent putting in floors and manufacturing custom door and baseboard trim, he said with a grin, “I can’t wait to get back to my real job.” She responded, “I can’t wait for you to get back to it either. I love witnessing people reacting to your art.”

Info: The expanded gallery is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily; closed Wednesdays. Call 747-5882 or go to tiffanysartagency.com