Fallen Trees Turn to Art with Tai Lake and Family—Fine Furniture and Art Collaboratives

By Margaret Kearns

At the very top of an unmarked, dead-end road in charming Holualoa Village lives a unique family of Lakes, five in all. Fired by vision, passion, and inextinguishable energy, this family is headed by internationally-acclaimed artist and designer Tai Lake. He leads the charge as “supreme commander” of the family’s successful fine furniture design business and approaches each day as if launching a campaign for environmental protection and conservation, innovative, unbridled thinking, and artistic freedom—couched in supreme perfection.

Tai is joined by sons Jonah, 28, “supreme co-pilot,” and Noah, 25, “field marshal and tree-cycler extraordinaire.” Steadying the course, navigating any and all hurdles, are wife and mother Mary Jo and daughter Kristin, 23, a recent graduate of Southern Oregon University with a degree in lighting design. In total, they form a small ensemble of enthusiastic, optimistic collaborators, creating an artful, socially responsible lifestyle here on Hawai‘i Island.

“I attend lots of academic conferences, industry association meetings, workshops and art collaboratives worldwide—they all seem to want a title. We’re not really about that, so we have fun coming up with outrageous, whimsical tags,” Tai Lake said.

Tongue-in-cheek titles aside, Lake has collected plenty of prestigious designations over his nearly 40-year career—the past 31 years of which have bloomed from roots firmly planted in Hawai‘i. He arrived here from the Pacific Northwest in 1980 as an architectural woodworker, turning to fine furniture design in 1991. Among the formal titles earned along the way: architect, furniture designer, artist, president, advocate, mentor, and, most recently, gatherer.

With just a glance at his exquisite collection of ever-evolving, hand-crafted furniture and decorative art pieces—all created using woods grown on Hawai‘i Island—Lake’s foundation in architectural design is apparent. Clean, contemporary lines and fine, precise details reveal that this is the work of an exceptionally gifted artist and a highly-trained design engineer, one who is keenly aware of the finite supply of the natural resource his work depends upon: native island forests.

“Every piece of work has a story and every story begins with the tree,” he says. “The rich history of woodworking here in the islands, the international recognition Hawai‘i has received for this work, and most importantly, the health of our fragile eco-system are at risk without proper care and propagation of these incredible resources.”

They are values clearly modeled for his children and lived large in the many leadership roles he plays to ensure the conservation and preservation of Hawaiian Islands’ dryland and upland forests of primarily koa and ‘ohia trees. Lake is current president of the Hawai‘i Forest Industry Association (HFIA), a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1989 by and for people committed to managing and maintaining healthy and productive forests.

Artists Collaborate in Holualoa

Some 20 Island artists, set aside ego and sole bragging rights when they participated in the first Hawai‘i artists’ collaborative event in Holualoa in late October.  The inaugural theme sums up the spirit of the event: Ho‘o hui a ho‘opa‘a, ‘Olelo no‘eau–“Bringing together all skillful artists and the talented/wise to gather as a people and stand together.”

“The three-day, invitation-only event gathered artists—all masters in their individual media—together to share ideas, inspiration and skills. We worked together to create numerous pieces of art—all with at least two and in some cases many more artists working in collaboration on each piece—using a mixed media approach,” says Tai Lake, designer and fine furniture maker, who together with Holualoa artist Cliff Johns organized this year’s event.

The completed art is being shown as the “Hawai‘i Collaboration Artists’ Exhibition” through November 17 at The Holualoa Gallery and Cliff Johns Gallery, both located in the heart of Holualoa Village. The art will be offered at a “no reserve” auction during a special event at Holualoa Inn on November 19, with all proceeds benefitting future collaborative events in Hawai‘i.

“Our goal was to encourage artists to venture outside their usual media, working in alternative art forms to expand their vision and skills,” Lake says. “And the concept was to start small and grow slowly over subsequent years,” he says. “This year, the participating artists represented every district on Hawai‘i Island, as well as a diverse range of media from wood turning, jewelry making, glass blowing, hand-painted fabric, ceramics, painting and more,” he said.

The collaborative is fashioned after established events in Canada and New Zealand, and in its initial year was limited to just 20 artists. In addition to the Hawai‘i Island participants, the debut event included one artist from Canada and another from California. Eventually, Lake says, the Hawai‘i Artist Collaborative will welcome artists from throughout the Hawaiian Islands and countries worldwide. ❖

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Space is somewhat limited for the November 19 auction event; for more information and to reserve your space, contact Tiffany Shaftoe at hawaiicollab@gmail.com.