Douglas Merkey Works

LIKE YOU, Hawaii enchants me. Exploring its many natural wonders is like gazing through a kaleidoscope of beauty: cerulean seas framed by smooth, white sandy shores and jagged black lava; verdant emerald rainforests contrast with scrubby grasslands and scraggly, windswept trees; glowing ember-red lava runs defiantly into a steaming blue ocean. This enchanting landscape, plus the people and creatures in it, creates artistic inspiration within me. My handcrafted wood wall sculptures are the fruit of this inspiration, celebrating Hawaii’s natural beauty and The Master Artisan who created it all. Like the Islands themselves, each sculpture invites you to (re)experience your own Hawaiian enchantment.

I HANDCRAFT each artwork, merging my design inspiration with the unique story told by a particular piece of sustainably-forested wood. After I’ve lovingly sculpted the wood with machines and ample hand-work (each piece is hand-sanded up to four times!), I’m ready to apply custom-mixed color. I use water-based stain because it accentuates and celebrates the wood grain as part of the artwork. What results is a beautiful, completely unique work of art that’s my own deeply personal reflection of Hawaii’s divinely-gifted beauty.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Sculpture is a privileged opportunity to bring delight to a new friend by telling their story, expressing and elevating their values, and beautifying their surroundings. This is what drives my creative process. Wood is perfectly suited as a way to record and share these stories since it can be selected and worked in ways that add tone and texture to important themes. Wood is dimensional, just like a good story, and it can be colored and shaped to convey depth and nuance for maximum effect. As I sculpt the wood into a beautiful physical expression of story and values, I find further inspiration in what’s been created by the Master Artisan. Coastal themes and the sea in particular offer a delightful lexicon which speaks with a “wild divinity” that “stirs something very deep and ancient in the human heart. It satisfies us in a more intimate way than the other elements."

¹ John O'Donohue, Beauty - The Invisible Embrace, Harper-Perennial, 2003, page 115.