WAIMEA — Sculptural palm artist Shelley Hoist is excited to have her first solo exhibit with a gallery filled exclusively with her work. Now through Dec. 21, her unique palm sheath sculptures, wall decor and statement jewelry are on display at Kahilu Theatre’s Hamakua Gallery during regular theater hours and performances.
Her sculptural palm art vessel, “Ho’okumu,” earned Kahilu Theatre’s Best of Show award last spring during the Art Off the Wall juried exhibit, resulting in an invitation for the “Transcending Palms” exhibit.
Hoist feels particularly grateful to have her art recognized by those from her island community.
“Kahilu is such a prestigious theater, known for its performing arts, so to be recognized this way as they launch into other types of art during their juried show is a great honor,” she said.
Fellow artists Wayne Levin and Jozuf Hadley are also exhibiting concurrently in the theater’s Kohala Gallery with “Spirits of Pacific Islands and Oceans,” a combination of Levin’s photography and Hadley’s wood sculpture.
Like many, Hoist spent years working and raising her children, finding creative outlets such as designing a flyer for her job or painting a room in a coffee shack house. Eventually, she began exploring nature for inspiration and source, discovering she “has a passion for palm” which has stayed with her during the past 20 years as she’s worked with the fiber.
Lately, she has developed the use of encaustic wax in the finishing of certain pieces, helping her to elevate her work to a new complexity and durability.
Hoist’s inspiration today is also based on her sense of our increasing dependency on screens. Her art is, for her, the antithesis of that — her method of shutting out the digital world. She wants to inspire people to be more connected to the natural world.
Hoist hopes she can inspire others to be creative in their own ways, giving themselves permission to play with types of art they are drawn to.
“We need more of that in our world now,” she said.
Hoist believes creating is also a way to find the inner self and is working on an upcoming set of creative play workshops for early 2017.
“Creativity is in there; we don’t use it. It’s just waiting for us to tap into it,“ she said.
Hoist believes we must give ourselves permission to play and avoid fixating on the outcome, enjoying instead the process of creating.
She received an honorable mention award at the Volcano Art Center in September for her entry in the multimedia juried art contest, “Return of Alala: Restoring The Voice of Hawaii’s Native Forests.”
In addition to pieces at the Volcano Art Center, she has a large amount of work at Holualoa Gallery. Each gallery’s grouping of pieces is unique and Hoist encourages visitors to experience the whole body of work at the different locations.
She also encourages visitors to schedule appointments at her studio in Kealakekua. There, visitors have the unique opportunity to see an artist in process, to view pieces not yet displayed on her website and to discuss commissioning special sculptural work.
Kahilu Theatre is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and during all shows. Info: 885-6868
Info: https://shelleyhoist.com