On Saturday, April 14, 2012, High Fire Hawaii is hosting free art demonstrations to celebrate our 4^th anniversary. High Fire Hawaii is also hosting a benefit plant sale for Let’s Grow Hilo along with a one-day anniversary sale on selected gallery prints, paintings, jewelry and ceramics.

Free demonstrations will include Patti Pease Johnson painting on silk and wheel thrown pottery by Shannon Hickey. Demonstrations will begin after the conclusion of the Merrie Monarch Parade. The gallery will have extended hours that day from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Art Helps!  A one-day benefit sale for the Hawaii Island Humane Society. Join our local artists and students as they support a good cause. Great deals on local art – seconds from our Ceramic Studio and Student Art.  A portion of all sales will be donated to HIHS. Saturday, November 26 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.

High Fire Hawaii’s Gallery Sale 11/26 to Benefit Humane Society

On Saturday, November 26, 2011, High Fire Hawaii, the art gallery & studio at 114 Kamehameha Avenue on Hilo’s Bayfront, is having a one-day sale on its gallery prints, paintings, jewelry and ceramics, and all sales will benefit the Hawaii Island Humane Society.

Deals include everything from student-created art and ceramic studio seconds – both functional and sculptural items – to gallery prints, paintings and jewelry. There will also be specially created animal- and Christmas-themed items. “We’ll have things like pet bowls for food and water, ceramic Christmas ornaments that are animal-related, like bones, and also Hawaiian-themed ones, like palm trees and pineapples, to hang on the tree,” said gallery co-owner Shannon Hickey.

“We’re hoping we have something to appeal to everybody, so everyone will buy something and the money will go to the Humane Society,” she said. “You’ll be able to get handmade ceramic coffee cups for $2 and up. We want people to come and buy stuff!”

The gallery, which is located at 114 Kamehameha Avenue near Cronies Bar & Grill, will have extended hours that day from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Hickey says she was motivated to do this benefit because of her love for animals. “We adopt most of our animals from the Humane Society, and I’ve always wanted to do something for them,” she said. “Also, my pottery students are really excited about making the items and selling them for a good cause.”

“Every artist in the gallery is giving a percentage of their consignment sales that day toward the Humane Society’s cause, and High Fire Hawaii will also match the percentage,” she said.

Everything for sale in the gallery has been created by a Big Island artist. “We have fine art, cards, hand-made bags, prints and ceramics. We have hand-made jewelry by about five different local artists,” she says, “and one lady features Kahelelani jewelry, which is made with the Ni‘ihau shells, but when they’re found on the shores of Kaua‘i and not Ni‘ihau, they are called ‘Kahelelani.’”

High Fire Hawaii opened in early 2009, first on Haili Street and then relocating to Kamehameha Avenue later that year. The art studio offers a wide selection of art classes and workshops for adults and for children, including pottery, painting, drawing and more.

Hickey, who has an Art degree and specializes in ceramics, says she and her partner Steve Lang originally opened the gallery/studio because there wasn’t really any other place in Hilo to do ceramics. “Other than the Community College, and not everybody wants to enroll in the college to do and learn about ceramics,” she said. “I saw a need and figured we should try to fill it. It seems to be working out great with the community; they can take a one-night workshop, or a longer class, whatever fits their needs.”

Their expansion into other types of art classes has gone well, too. “They keep cutting art more and more in the schools, especially in the public schools,” says Hickey. “A lot of my ceramics students are teenagers. We have adults too, but a lot of teens come through and are really interested. And of course our four-week children’s art classes on Saturday afternoons are a huge hit and fill up fast.”

Special Workshop for Kids! Decorate your own mug for Halloween. Choose Pumpkins or Frankenstein’s Head. See the workshop page for details.

Jacob graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.  Jacob has exhibited work in numerous local and international exhibitions. His work is in the Public Collection of the China Academy of Art, Hanzhou, China.

Recent Exhibitions Include:

• 2009 Schaefer Portrait Challenge, Maui Arts and Cultural Center, Maui, HI and
• Contemporary Art Museum, Honolulu, HI
• 2009 EHCC Fall Arts Festival, Hilo, HI
• 2009 “Coffs” solo show, Wailoa Center, Hilo, HI
• 2009 Abstract Only, Wailoa Center, Hilo, HI
• 2009 Fifty-Fifty Collective, Wailoa Center, Hilo, HI
• 2007 Fifty-Fifty Surf Skate collective, Hilo Art Museum, Hilo, HI and
• Ong King, Chinatown, Honolulu, HI
• 2007 Hilo in our H’arts 4th Juried Competition, Wailoa Center, Hilo, HI
• 2007 Self-Portrait Exhibit, Wailoa Center, Hilo, HI
• 2006 Abstract Only, Wailoa Center, Hilo, HI
• 2006 Big Island Portrait Exhibition, East Hawai’I Cultural Center, Hilo, HI
• 2006 Honolulu Printmakers 78th Annual, Honolulu, HI

Shannon throwing in Japan

Shannon graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. While at UHH Shannon was a Studio Technician for both the UHH Art Department Print Studio and the Hawaii Community College Art Department Ceramics Studio. She received a tuition award and was honored with a Dean’s Exhibition Series in the Dean’s Offices of the College of Arts and Sciences at UHH.

Shannon has exhibited work in local and international exhibitions. Her work was shown in a 2004 traveling exhibition and her prints are included in Public Collections at the Amity Foundation in Woodbury, Connecticut and the China Academy of Art, Hanzhou, China.

Shannon at the Potter's Wheel