ART & SOUL

BY BOB COOPER

Four artisans, four countries and one vision – heartfelt authenticity.

Whether we call them craftsmen and women, artisans, or simply makers, there is a special place in every traveller's heart for those who create the objets d'art found in destinations worldwide. These works earn a place in our homes and, with a passing glance, they bring back fond memories from the trips during which they were bought. Each creation from these makers reflects not only the unique vision of the artisan, but also the essence of the place in which the artwork came to life.

YOSEF “JOJO” OHAYON | DEAD SEA, ISRAEL

The ethereal Dead Sea is a constant inspiration for artisan Yosef “Jojo” Ohayon and his wife, Deganit, a professional potter. Ohayon was born into a family of artists in Casablanca. After they moved to Israel, he resisted going into the family business, choosing instead to grow melons and peppers and design agricultural equipment. But art was in his blood. When he accidentally disfigured a metal piece of farm equipment, he couldn’t help but notice its odd beauty. Soon he started making metal chairs similarly contorted. And so he followed in his parents’ footsteps after all.

Ohayon’s pieces range from chairs and vases to mosaic sculptures and paintings. His methods are as unorthodox as his art objects are colourful and whimsical. Drawing on his familiarity with farm machinery, he uses water pressure from electric pumps and fire hoses to shape metal objects, and bottles to disperse colours when he paints his abstracts.

While the best place to see Ohayon’s work is in his Dead Sea showroom or the Tel Aviv Gallery, it can be found in galleries around the world – from Europe and New York City to China and Australia.

FERNANDO ALFARO | SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, CHILE

Chilean National Handicraft Award-winning ceramicist Fernando Alfaro is on a mission. He wants to preserve the 11,000-year-old artistic heritage of Chile’s indigenous peoples, especially the Lickan Antay or Atacameños, who live in northern Chile and Argentina. The former art professor does this by creating masks, Pachamama and shamanic figures and pre-Columbian musical instrument replicas in his studio, Lickan Antay Ceramics. They convey to visitors the history of Chile’s indigenous peoples and teaching ancient clay modelling workshops.

The 2.5-hour workshops are attended by hundreds each year, as San Pedro de Atacama is the home base for most international visitors to the Atacama Desert, one of Chile’s three most popular tourism regions. “The mission I had as a professor was to teach the art of the pre-Columbian peoples,” says Alfaro. Opening his studio 18 years ago let him continue that work, though his students are now foreign visitors.

Alfaro’s workshop participants, especially if they also visit the Le Paige Archaeological Museum in town, leave with a new appreciation of Atacameños art and culture – and a memento of their visit in the form of a llama or jaguar clay miniature they made themselves.

RANJA & JEFF DEAN | HOMER, ALASKA

Perched way out on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, Homer is a popular destination for art-minded travellers, not merely because of the abundance of galleries in town but also because of the Dean Family Farm and Art Studios above town. It’s up there, with stunning views of Kachemak Bay and the Kenai Mountains, where longtime Alaskans Ranja Dean and her husband, Jeff, share their lives as farmers and artisans with visitors.

On two-hour tours, Ranja begins by introducing visitors to the farm’s menagerie, highlighted by Yeti, a 5,500-kilogram yow (a yak-cow hybrid). Next, they enter the studio for a lesson in the techniques used to form their pieces. Finally, guests tour the gallery, housed in a yurt as architecturally unique as the rest of the timber-framed buildings. Jeff specializes in metal and wood wall art. Ranja creates bronze figures, quilts and wooden utensils. Their daughter, M’fanwy – another accomplished artist – specializes in hand-carved and painted wood panels.

Alaskan wildlife – including grizzlies, polar bears, moose and reindeer – are the subjects of many of the family members’ creations. “My art is made from those magical, heartfelt moments spent in the company of animals and people,” says Ranja. “It’s about the joy we feel together.”

LAUNA GREEN | GEORGE TOWN, CAYMAN ISLANDS

Launa Green can be found almost every Saturday chatting with visitors to her jewellery table at the Hamlin Stephenson Market at George Town’s Cricket Grounds. But it’s not ordinary jewellery. Most of her earrings, pendants, necklaces, rings, cufflinks, brooches, marine-life sculptures and custom pieces are made of caymanite, a rare, semi-precious dolomite found only in the Caymans.

Caymanite is beloved for its earth-tone layers. The colours of each piece depend on the stone’s mineral composition: black from magnesium, reds from iron, and other hues from nickel, copper and titanium.

“Raw caymanite is not easy to carve because its hardness can conceal hidden fractures you don’t see until the cutting, shaping and polishing is almost finished,” says Green. “So, it must be done very carefully to avoid losing the piece.” One pair of earrings can take her five hours and sculptures a few weeks.

Caymanite carving has a long tradition in the islands. Green studied under a master craftsman in the late 1980s. “When I look at raw caymanite’s unique layers, colours and patterns created from water, sediment and natural metals, I can’t help but be in awe of what will emerge as I design, cut and shape each piece,” she says. “I treat each one like an expectant mother as it can only be brought to life with patience. And, like babies, no two are exactly alike. With each of them, I am shaping a piece of the Cayman Islands and sharing it with my clients and the world.”