Volcano Art Center Featured Artists

Andrews, Frank

“It starts with an exciting field trip”, Frank Andrews said when asked about his process for creating his welded copper petroglyph sculpture. “I hike into prehistoric rock art sites in the desert Southwest and Hawai‘i, take photographs and make drawings, then convert LEARN MORE >>

Bianchini, Henry

Henry Bianchini In 1965, Henry Bianchini built a 30-foot trimaran. In 1969, he and his wife Dianne sailed it to Hawai‘i and saw the Mauna Ulu eruption from many miles at sea. The Big Island has been their home ever since, and still holds much magic for LEARN MORE >>

Bianchini, Henry

Henry Bianchini was born in San Diego, CA on December 28, 1935. Since settling in Hawaii in 1969, he has distinguished himself internationally as a sculptor, painter, printmaker, and craftsman. He has earned several Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts LEARN MORE >>

Carney, Eric

Eric was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1969 and moved to Iowa as a child. He began writing poetry and making sculptures in the third grade. In high school, Eric won the National Scholastic gold medal in photography. In 1992, Eric moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico LEARN MORE >>

Clapp, Ed

Ed is a sculptor who works in traditional materials, such as wood and bronze, but he always keeps an eye out on dump runs and at garage sales for unusual objects to incorporate into his mixed media work. After graduating with a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth LEARN MORE >>

Froney, Ethan

Ethan Froney is an artist/ blacksmith residing in Waimea. His welding studies be- gan at the Pratt Fine Arts Center. Ethan expanded his skills while being mentored by a number of master blacksmiths. Since 1998, he has forged, fabricated and built museum quality LEARN MORE >>

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Hoist, Shelley

Shelley Hoist feels extremely lucky to be a natural fiber artist living on the beautiful Kona coast on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Creating art has always been a part of her life.  Inspired by natural fibers and found treasures, she creates sculptural art vessels, LEARN MORE >>

Israel, Bea

It was love at first brush stroke that put me on the path of discovering, studying and creating art. Nothing has changed since these early years and still there is no greater joy for me than to use traditional or very nontraditional media and tools to create LEARN MORE >>

Mares, Leopoldo

Leopoldo Mares began his artistic career as a young student of Fine Arts in Fairbanks, Alaska. His first carvings included Pacific North West Coast Indian Art. Mares earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Being Hispanic in decent LEARN MORE >>

McClure, Frank

In 1968, when he was thirteen, Frank McClure’s family moved to Kailua, O`ahu. Since they lived only two blocks from the beach, his life revolved around surfing, diving, and fishing. After finishing school, he moved to Kaua`i in 1975 to find less crowded waves. LEARN MORE >>

Mortensen, Karen

Karen Mortensen exhibited a profound interest in creating fine art from an early age. She was born into an artistic family in Copenhagen, Denmark. She studied fine art at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles before moving from Santa Barbara, California to the Big LEARN MORE >>

Paul, Gregory

Gregory Paul has been fascinated by the process of discovering and revealing the forms hidden within natural matter since his early childhood in the Redwoods of Northern California. During his art school days at San Jose State in the mid-90’s, Gregory began LEARN MORE >>

Peterson, Skye

Born and raised on the East Coast, Skye came west nearly thirty years ago. He lived on windward O`ahu for nine years, and then taught English in Japan for a few years before moving to Volcano over fifteen years ago. Skye is a builder by trade and does his carving by LEARN MORE >>

Policicchio, Perry

Perry Policicchio has been working with wood since junior high in Dearbom, Michigan. He got straight A’s in shop and was promoted to Shop Assistant in high school. He then began an entrepreneurial career, opening his own bakery right after high school and running it LEARN MORE >>

Jeff Roth

Roth, Jeff

Jeff has a BFA from Washington University’s School of Fine Arts which naturally included courses in art history. It was his study of Asian art history with Dr. Nelson Wu that inspired Jeff to travel throughout Southeast Asia to see temples and shrines. While there, LEARN MORE >>

Shiroma, Randall

Randall Shiroma graduated with an MA & MFA in sculpture from San Jose State University. Randall has been commissioned for various projects on the mainland and Hawai`i, including two from the Hawai`i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Hilton Towers in LEARN MORE >>

Sudler, Jonathan

Jonathan Sudler has a BFA in sculpture from Alfred University in New York and an MFA in sculpture from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He has been a corporate event planner for 20 years and is currently the Art Director for Nahu Creative, a Volcano-based LEARN MORE >>

Tomono, Lonny

Lonny Tomono studied fine arts at UH, Manoa, then sculpture at SFSU and San Jose State University. He expanded his knowledge while working with Japanese Temple carver Makoto Imai, then moved to Japan and apprenticed for ve years with Imai’s teacher, a fth generation LEARN MORE >>

Yamanoha, Glenn

Glenn Yamanoha attended Kyoto University of the Arts (woodblock printing, Monbusho grant), Osaka University of Foreign Studies (Japanese), and graduated from University of Washington (BFA Painting, Honors,). He exhibited professionally since 1985 in Hawai’i, the LEARN MORE >>