PO‘IPU — World-renowned artist Tom Lieber is featured alongside 10-year-old son Leaf and mentor Peter Bodnar at Galerie 103 in Po‘ipu through Dec. 10 in an exhibition titled “Generations: mentor to father to son.” Lieber, who is from the Midwest originally, has slowly gone west over the course of his career, and now calls Kaua‘i his home.
“You don’t have to be in New York to make good art,” Lieber said. “It’s the center of commerce, but if you’re inspired you can make art anywhere.”
“The lines in my paintings are reflections of my walks, and the way things grow here,” Lieber said.
Lieber makes his art in his studio, a room next to his house filled with his abstract paintings, and canvases which he mills and stretches himself. He wakes at 3 a.m. most mornings and works until 7 a.m., when he gets his son ready for school.
“At night it’s so quiet, and the energy is so perfect, it’s real pure,” Lieber said of his pre-daylight working hours, when he comes in with a cup of coffee and gets to work. When asked about his method for creating, Lieber replied: “Practice, practice, practice…and then the moment comes and you can do the work.”
One wall of the studio is dominated by a 72-inch by 72-inch painting in his studio is titled “Blue Heart.”
“The title of ‘Blue Heart’ came from Sylvia Earle’s lecture, when she named the ocean the heart of the planet,” Lieber said, who was inspired by Earle, a legendary undersea explorer.
In addition to supporting environmental issues, Lieber donates his time regularly with the youth of Kaua‘i teaching art. He works once a week at Kanuikapono charter school in Anahola, and has just started to teach a watercolor class at Kaua‘i Pacific School, where he son attends.
“I go in every Monday and they call me ‘Mr. Painter Man,’” Lieber said of Kanuikapono. “They call me the best painter in the world, which I love,” Lieber added, laughing.
The students paint watercolors on postcard-size card stock, and Lieber packages them and has them for sale at Galerie 103. Each time a set sells, the money is used to buy more art supplies for the students.
Lieber said when he teaches watercolor, he puts six tiny dots of paint on a palate, and tells the students, “this is just like the resources on the island; we all have to share them, and we add a little water and it just explodes” into enough for everyone to use.
“True creativity — that’s something we can export from the island,” Lieber said.
For more information about the exhibit, call Galerie 103 at 742-0123 or visit www.galerie103.com.
