While North Shore artist Roberta Griffith’s works are housed in collections around the world — including museums and galleries in Spain, Mexico, Italy, England, Sweden and Japan — her solo show now at the Kaua‘i Museum marks the first time
While North Shore artist Roberta Griffith’s works are housed in collections around the world — including museums and galleries in Spain, Mexico, Italy, England, Sweden and Japan — her solo show now at the Kaua‘i Museum marks the first time her creations have been seen publicly in Hawai‘i.
“Roberta Griffith A Solo Exhibition in the Mezzanine Gallery” is on display through Dec. 31 and features ceramics, hot-glass sculptures, paintings and a mixed-media ceramic installation titled “Hung Out to Die 2010.”
Griffith said she enjoys surprising people with her work, with the hope that it will stir up their minds and make them think about things differently.
“I like to put little things hidden in my works to see if people would notice,” Griffith said, referring to her oil painting, “Yellow with Red #4.”
The title of the painting is a play on words. Red No. 3 is a common dye used in food.
Griffith is also a fan of odd numbers, a theme found throughout her solo exhibit that might escape the casual viewer.
For Griffith, art is an integral part of her life. She has traveled the globe, studying, teaching and creating art.
In 1966, Griffith started teaching full-time at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., and spent 42 years building the school’s art program before retiring from the school in 2008.
“But artists don’t retire, of course,” Griffith said with a laugh. Since “retirement,” the artist has settled into her North Shore home and has been busy creating new works to display at her exhibit.
When Griffith sets out to create a piece, she follows an internal compass that lets her know when her work is complete.
“But sometimes things take you by surprise,” Griffith said. “You always need to give yourself time to judge a piece.”
Much of Griffith’s work on display is inspired by her world travels and her habitat — the Hawaiian islands.
Her paintings feature abstract images painted in bright colors, which Griffith purposely decided not to frame, giving the collection a modern touch.
The lines painted on the wheel-thrown ceramic chargers are reminiscent of the earth’s horizons, while wood-fired tea bowls dotted with ash draw from the artist’s travels in Japan. Upon a second look at the tea bowls one may spot the subtle imperfections Griffith purposely leaves on various pieces.
Griffith compares her hot-glass sculptures to amoeba-like forms, dotted with small eyes in the middle of each sculpture.
The centerpiece of her exhibit is an installation titled “Hung Out to Die 2010.”
The installation features three tulle sacks filled with ceramic-doll parts and baseballs. The sacks are hung by a piece of clothesline tied to a metal rack.
The piece took four months to build and alludes to “the universal cyclical nature of life and death. They are a metaphor for remnants of broken lives, broken toys and unfulfilled promise, whether from politics, strife, wars, human intervention or natural disasters.
“I don’t want to tell people what to think,” Griffith said. “I just want to put a little insight, so people don’t make a total misinterpretation. They’re free to go down their own path.”
“Roberta Griffith A Solo Exhibition in the Mezzanine Gallery” is currently on display from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the Kaua‘i Museum in Lihu‘e.
