Wood Sculptor Jan C. Orbom

By Margaret Kearns

Spanning more than four decades, Jan C. Orbom’s art has journeyed though many different mediums—from Hollywood set designer, to poet, wood sculptor, and classical guitar musician. Today, in his home perched high above the spectacular South Kona coast and dazzling blue Pacific, he turns out massive abstract sculptures, smaller life forms (primarily birds), and finely honed furniture.

“My intention has always been to create beauty. Now it’s to create beauty and peace,” Jan says in defining his work.

And peace is precisely what he’s surrounded himself with in his tranquil Hawai‘i Island sanctuary comprised of exotic tropical gardens, stunning home, and large working studio.

Born into the movie industry in the mid-forties (Jan’s father, Eric, was the Academy Award-winning art director for the classic film, Spartacus in 1960), it’s no surprise his artistic career took seed right there in Southern California. Studying life drawing and perspective at Chouinard Art Institute—now the California Institute of the Arts—in Los Angeles, Universal Studios tapped Jan to draft blueprints and design sets for mega blockbusters such as Psycho, To Kill a Mockingbird, Judgment at Nuremberg, and the TV series Star Trek.

“After about eight years, I became disillusioned with life in Hollywood and basically dropped out of society. I made the move to Marina Del Rey where I lived on a sailboat for years. Later, I moved further up the coast to Big Sur where I managed a ranch and ran a sawmill. In fact, cutting cord wood at that mill is where I learned to sculpt,” he says.

“Looking back now, it’s funny, one of my teacher’s at Chouinard and my longtime mentor (appropriately named), Mentor Heubner, always told me I drew like a sculptor, and apparently he was right!”

While becoming proficient with a chainsaw—always a risky proposition, he notes—and honing his sculpting skills in Big Sur, Jan says he found joy and a sense of purpose to his life again. He also developed a keen understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of various types of wood—something essential to creating the one-piece originals that have become his signature over the years.

For instance, one of his master works is a nine-and-a-half-foot long by five-foot wide dining table made from one solid piece of an old-growth Koa tree that was gifted to him by one of his neighbors, a native of Hawai‘i Island.

He also developed his own technique for cutting, grinding, chiseling, and then hand-sanding his work.

“Hand-sanding is actually the most time consuming. I take most of my work to a fairly smooth, polished finish, although some call for a more rustic, rough finish with chisel marks clearly visible.” Jan describes his specific method as simply, “Just a bunch of hard work!”

So, with lots of hard work, Jan made and sold furniture for a living at his popular—and hugely successful—Cypress Studio on California’s Central Coast for more than a decade.

In 40 years, he says, “I’ve designed and sculpted several thousand pieces which have found homes all around the world, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Canada, and locations throughout the United States.” Homes that include corporate offices, hotel entrances and “many a fine and humble home,” he adds.

In addition to those placements, St. Martin’s College in Olympia, Washington is home to a permanent collection of Jan’s sculptures that resides in its museum and gardens. A renowned art collector in Malibu, California, he says, currently owns the largest collection of his abstract sculptures and unique, one-of-a-kind furniture.

Since moving to Hawai‘i Island in 2005 and building his hillside home and studio in South Kona, Jan says he’s completed another 150 pieces with several more currently in the works.

Today, his fine sculptures and tables are crafted from Hawaiian native woods—primarily koa, mango and monkeypod—rather than the redwood he started with in California. Still, some of his most treasured redwood pieces relocated with him.

Here in Hawai‘i, one of Jan’s first inspirations came from an ‘io (Hawaiian hawk) that circled above him at the site where his studio now sits. Looking down, he saw the same bird’s form in a nearby piece of monkeypod, and it became one of the first pieces he completed here. He considered it a great omen at the time, in part because his original inspiration when he began carving was that of a hawk circling high above him in the forests of California’s Central Coast. That large, original piece now sits proudly at the entrance to a hotel in southern Japan he says.

Another massive piece, still emerging from the wood, already holds a special place in Jan’s heart—a sculpture of an ‘io with its wings spread wide. Once again, the inspiration came from yet another close encounter with one of his favorite birds.

While Jan firmly believes the final form of any sculpture already exists within the wood and his work is in releasing it, this particular sculpture had an additional push from an unexpected visitor!

“Shortly after completing our home here, a large ‘io flew into my studio with claws outstretched. It flew back and forth a few times and then landed right in front of the piece of wood I had just started working with. He kept looking at it and then turned and walked out with a very dignified step. It was really a great sign and a moment when I felt the ‘io’s spirit come into that piece of wood,” Jan says.

In Hawaiian legend, the ‘io represents a powerful symbol—royalty, supremacy, or excellence. Endemic to Hawai‘i, today the ‘io only breeds on Hawai‘i Island, though on rare occasions it is seen on O‘ahu and Maui.

Another native bird frequently found in Jan’s collections is the pueo (Hawaiian owl), which is one of many nā ‘aumākua (ancestor spirits) in Hawaiian culture. A bird of power and strength, the pueo is considered a protector.

And while birds feature prominently in his collections, they’re far from being the exclusive subjects of this creative artist. Marine mammals, primarily dolphins, are also frequent subjects, while one of the most stunning pieces in Jan’s studio is a large abstract entitled Tango Dancers. It was beautifully uncovered from the root of ancient monkeypod he found on his South Kona home site.

“The tree’s memory resides in its heart, that place where the trunk emerges from the soil and its roots. I like to think this piece, the joy of the dance, is a memory from the tree’s first spring,” he says.

In total about 20 works of art are exhibited at Jan’s home studio, and he estimates another 20 or so are on display in galleries and fine furniture stores throughout West Hawai‘i, including Statements in Kailua-Kona’s New Industrial area and Rumley Art & Frame in the King Kamehameha Courtyard by Marriott Hotel.

And what exactly was it that drew him to Hawai‘i Island from his native California? Beyond what Jan describes as the beauty and mystery of the many forms of natural phenomena in Hawai‘i that inspires most of his work, he shares his late father’s lifelong love affair with the islands.

“My first visit was in 1959; I was 15 at the time. It was an extended stay, and I still remember bussing tables and washing dishes at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel! At the time, the Royal Hawaiian was just one of two hotels on Waikīkī Beach,” he says. After experiencing Hawai‘i during its highflying “Golden Years” on that initial visit, Jan was hooked for life!

In the 1960s, he was back again and spent most of that colorful, mind-expanding decade on the island of Maui before landing in Hawi here on Hawai‘i Island. Jan spent part of the 70s in that idyllic small town situated on the island’s northernmost tip before marriage and raising a family took him back to the mainland in 1979.

With roots now firmly planted in South Kona, Jan is finally back home in the islands for good. When he’s not creating beauty and peace with his wood sculptures, you can find him playing classical guitar—primarily Flamenco—at home or on rare occasion at a few restaurants and bars in and around Kailua-Kona. ❖

Contact Jan Orbom: 808.895.6743, JanOrbomSculpture.com

Contact writer Margaret Kearns: margaretekearns@gmail.com

---

Deb Sims reflects on working with Jan Orbom

The ‘io hawk was special to my husband Paul and I. It always showed up at the most meaningful times. Ancient Hawaiian life was directed by spiritual guidance, and the belief is that the spirit was often found on Earth through a living creature. These creatures were known as ‘aumakua, or guardian angels. We believed our ‘aumakua was the ‘io, the native Hawaiian hawk found only on Hawai‘i Island. It was always a treat when we had a visit from the ‘io, soaring above our farm, watching over us. This graceful bird was seen on our coffee labels for Sweet Spirit Farms.

In the spring of 2009 I had to have a large limb trimmed from Paul’s favorite tree on Sweet Spirit Farms, a huge monkeypod that was right above our house. We lived in a tent for nearly a year underneath that special tree when we first moved to the property.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to find someone to come and haul the wood off. I’d contacted several woodworkers and no one ever took me up on my offer. Then I walked into the 2009 Mango Festival and there was a booth for Hawaiian Hawk Sculpture Studio.

Jan Orbom’s main specialty is the ‘io hawk, so our paths were meant to cross. He especially enjoys working with monkeypod wood, and also uses koa and mango.

When Jan came to pick up the wood, I told him about Paul’s passing on June 16, 2008, and his favorite tree. We struck a deal where he would make two hawks (one for me and one for my son, Justin). The sculptures are absolutely beautiful and the house doesn’t feel as empty with them in it. It’s been the strangest thing.

Jan made a number of bowls out of the rest of the wood—there was a lot of it. I sent them to sisters, sister-in-laws, and a couple of best friends who really miss Paul. And of course, Paul’s mom got hers while she was here. They all have seen this tree on their visits to the farm, and know how special it was to Paul.

I was trying to put together a little card to send with the bowls, and decided I needed a poem. So I sat down with my Artist’s Way journal and wrote one. It just flowed right out of my heart onto the page—I couldn’t believe it. That has never happened to me before!

I created a beautiful gift card with the photo of the real hawk in the monkeypod tree, a photo of the leaves of the canopy, and our Sweet Spirit Farms logo with the hawk. Everyone was very surprised.

Jan told me later that he was so inspired by Paul and the story, that when he started sculpting the hawk he finished it really quickly and believed it was one of his best hawks he had ever sculpted. I saw him a couple of years afterward and he said the inspiration was still affecting his work. I loved hearing that!

Deb’s Tribute to Paul

Why, I wonder, was it his favorite tree?
This monkeypod with its beautiful canopy.
It gracefully shaded our modest tent
That no one in their right mind would ever rent.

Maybe it was the beauty of its leaves,
They moved and danced with the slightest breeze.
Perhaps because the ‘io hawk came to rest
On its strong branches as it flew in from the west.

Now a part of him is scattered ‘round its base.
I can gaze up thru the leaves and almost see his face
As he talks about his very favorite tree
On Sweet Spirit Farms, where he was meant to be.

Deb Sims, Dec. 2009