Holualoa Gallery: A 30-Year Retrospective with Matthew & Mary Lovein
By Kristina Anderson
For more than 30 years, Matthew and Mary Lovein’s Holualoa Gallery anchored the center of this small art hamlet in the lush upcountry of Kailua-Kona. Not only was the gallery location central and highly visible, the Loveins themselves were instrumental in promoting the arts scene in town, while celebrating the local community heritage using their gallery as a focal point.
When they officially closed their gallery in April 2020, the Loveins marked the end of an era with bittersweet nostalgia. At the same time, they are delighted that polymer clay artist Barbara Hanson, the new artist-in-residence of the gallery, will continue the tradition while supporting the town and honoring its history. After all, the space had been used as a potter’s studio and gallery when the Loveins first discovered it back in the late 1980s. Fortunately, art seems to be its continuing legacy.
The Holualoa Gallery journey all started when the Loveins, married in 1988, visited Hawai‘i Island on their honeymoon. Mary had raised her three children on Maui in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and had always loved the Hawaiian Islands. Matthew, a California boy, had never been to Hawai‘i before.
From the moment they met in 1981, the couple has enjoyed a rather enchanted life, buoyed by teamwork, artistic vision, and serendipity (along with a love of chameleons, families of which hang gently from their property’s trees like jeweled ornaments, according to Mary.)
“We were honeymooning, and walked through Hōlualoa. We stopped at the gravel-floored gallery and signed the guest book,” recalls Mary of their first visit to what would later become their own gallery. “It was a pottery studio at the time. Later, the lessee, Doug Sigel, ended up working for us at our woodworking shop in Laguna Hills. He told us that the Hōlualoa space was available and asked if we wanted to take it over and move to Hawai‘i. We decided to accept the opportunity, and Holualoa Gallery was born.”
Following their hearts and intuition, they named it Holualoa Gallery while still in California, because it seemed like the right name at the time. “The name we chose was probably a little presumptuous, as there were other galleries in Hōlualoa,” says Mary with a laugh.
So, January 1, 1990, the Loveins opened their gallery and just four years later, they were doing well enough to install a wood floor and an upper mezzanine level, but left the gravel at the entrance as a reminder of their humble beginnings.
Mary, a talented multimedia artist, photographer, and book author, took her first lesson in painting back in Huntington Beach before moving to Hawai‘i. Over the years, she attended art classes in college and together, Matt and Mary attended sculpture classes at Laguna Beach School of Art. To her delight, her first paintings sold easily, and that early success launched her career. Mary also worked as a children’s photographer and a T-shirt silkscreen maker and designer.
Matthew, who grew up in Costa Mesa, started out his professional life with a career in the engineering department of the Irvine Ranch Water District, supervising reclaimed water programs; however, he had always enjoyed carpentry and woodworking on the side, so after 10 years, he quit his job with the district and opened a high-end woodshop. His passion for ceramics and throwing clay at the pottery wheel began when he was still working with wood and designing kitchens in Newport Beach. Moving to Hawai‘i was a huge change for him.
Matthew’s Wish Keepers
In 1992, Matthew went to bed one night and had an inspiring dream to create what he would christen a Wish KeeperTM. Using clay and the dramatic raku style of glazing and firing, he recreated the unique sculptural vessel with a bamboo-shaped top, details he had envisioned in the dream.
These amazing pieces, created in various sizes, eventually became worldwide collectibles and family traditions. Many who own them, including some big-name celebrities, say these objects have mystical properties and that their wishes have come true. All they had to do was write their wishes down on parchment and place them in the inner chamber of the vessel.
The Lovein Magic
Indeed, the Lovein magic seems to happen just a little too often to be pure coincidence—just like when Matthew and Mary met while dancing. Mary still beams with a romantic glow as she describes their meeting nearly 40 years ago.
“Matthew was a wholesome, quiet guy who wore a suit and tie, a belt and shoes; I was the gypsy from Maui. So, at first, it didn’t seem like a match, though we kept in touch. It turns out we lived in the same subdivision, one street away in the same floorplan, only flipped! We actually had a lot in common, especially our love for art and photography,” Mary recalls. “Every time we talked on the phone, I couldn’t stop smiling. I simply fell head over heels and madly in love with Matthew—it was like we had always known each other.”
That enchantment as a couple is exactly what created the perfect environment for a beloved gallery to thrive, one that would span decades and become one of the reliable beating hearts of little Hōlualoa Village.
At first, they stocked the new gallery with limited items they had brought from the mainland. “In the beginning, it was just us,” Mary recalls, “‘He’s the potter, I’m the painter,’ I would tell customers, and later that became a slogan.”
Matthew still had to return to California to close down his woodworking shop while Mary learned on the job in Hawai‘i to sell retail. She also painted up a storm.
Mary’s Prolific Paintings
Some of the first paintings Mary completed for the gallery were portraits of Chioko and Doc Nakamaru, the mother and father of Kent Nakamaru, famed Hōlualoa dentist and woodworker. She painted neighbor Lillian Towata picking coffee, which was chosen for the cover of the 1994 Kona Coffee Cultural Festival magazine. She also completed a collection of watercolors envisioning a hula hālau, as well as an acclaimed series of acrylic portraits of the Hawaiian monarchs—King Kalākaua, Princess Ka‘iulani, and Queen Lili‘uokalani. Other portraits of note by Mary include one of actor and personal friend, Richard Chamberlain with his dog Buster, and a Mona Lisa, charmingly reimagined to be holding a chameleon, the Loveins’ spirit animal.
She honored the owner of the building at the time, coffee farmer Edwin Ueda, with a painting on a life-size piece of wood that Matthew cut to fit. The recognizable figure stood at the gallery entrance for decades and became its iconic “greeter.”
The Loveins Love Their Community
Throughout the years, the Loveins have shown their own work at the gallery, along with a select group of featured artists including Herb Kāne and Darrell Hill.
Community spirit seemed to be part of the flow at Holualoa Gallery. Matthew and Mary donated time to the village association, and sponsored tents and entertainers at many events over the years. John-E Collins played live music for First Fridays while well-known local musician LT Smooth performed for their galleryʻs 30th anniversary gala.
Matthew helped decorate the town with banners and set up stages for various events. For seven years, they served as Mr. and Mrs. Claus for the Holualoa Music and Light Festival in December, and hosted a coffee farmer for the yearly Holualoa Coffee and Art Stroll during the Kona Coffee Festival every November. First Friday’s Art After Dark programs and many other events helped bring people together and attract visitors as well as residents to enjoy the town and tour the dozen or so participating galleries and businesses located along the narrow streets of Hōlualoa.
“I feel very blessed to have experienced 30 years of owning an art gallery in Hōlualoa,” says Matthew. “The gallery was an exciting lifestyle of creating art, interacting with the public, and making many cherished friendships. The aloha spirit of Hawai‘i opened many doors for us, and as this door closes, I look forward to our future of continuing to create new art, filled with much love and aloha. From my heart, I would like to thank everyone who made this possible.”
Although the Loveins are grandparents and great-grandparents, that doesn’t mean they are ready for rocking chairs just yet. In fact, the artistic endeavors continue at their home studios just up the street from their former gallery. Mary is focusing on photography, photo restoration, designing event posters, and other digital graphic art. Matthew continues working in clay and is creating stunning glass art. The Loveins are also developing a new line of jewelry with glass, gold, and silver, as well as collaborating on new ceramic designs. Their gallery will continue to operate virtually online.
In their quasi-retirement, though, something else doesn’t change. “The aloha spirit is always present,” says Mary. “The love we have for our friends and neighbors, the beauty here in Hōlualoa, the spirit of the community we love, will always be here and in our hearts.” ❖
Photos courtesy of Matt and Mary Lovein
For more information: lovein.com
