Arabella Ark

Mystery and antiquity in clay

By CYNTHIA SWEENEY

Arabella Ark’s ceramics resonate with a timeless, mystical quality.

By firing in the Japanese raku tradition, she lends her architectural temples and tea houses a sense of story, spirituality and feeling of antiquity.

Ark has deep roots in Maui, especially Hāna, which she calls “a very powerful place.” She now lives on Moloka‘i, near her family and grandchildren, on property overlooking a fishpond, bordering the reef and channel between Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i.

“The beauty is overwhelming with natural landscape, the sea, dawns and dusks. I kayak or swim as often as I can and walk the beach with my golden retriever.”

Ark says she is inspired by Japanese architecture, and her world-wide travels. Her artwork has won major awards and is exhibited around the world. She has pieces in permanent collections in Honolulu, at the Smithsonian Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, and in China and Australia.

Yet ceramics came into her life through a back door while she was an actress, theater director, mother, and writer. Originally from northern California, Ark has produced numerous plays, started a production company in France and performed with the National Theatre of Greece in Athens. While in Europe, “I traveled, and traveled, and traveled. I never, ever thought about being a potter,” she said.

When Ark moved to Hawai‘i in 1972, she started making glazes for another artist’s ceramic artwork. When she tried her own hand, the first pieces she created were quite large, and looked “like Stonehenge.”

Loading the kiln back then, she dropped a favorite piece inspired by the Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto. She calls it her “Zen lesson” in learning how to let go. “From that point on, I’ve never worked as though my work was precious. I do it just for the joy of making it.”

Ark’s large fortress creations are influenced by ancient ruins and by the Japanese tea ceremony. They seem to evoke a sense of strength and protection. In other pieces, instead of putting a standard foot at the bottom, “I would put a little set of stairs that were ascending because I wanted a feeling of let’s go upwards with our thoughts.” She also added windows, doorways and staircases “because I wanted that feeling of willingness to go into a new space. To look beyond where we are.”

On Moloka‘i, Ark built a beautiful showroom and art studio, also used by her grandchildren.

“I believe I am happier than I have ever been, absorbing the magic of dawn and dusk colors here at the beach in Kawela.”

Arabella Ark’s ceramics can be seen and purchased at Village Galleries in Lāhainā, Viewpoints Gallery in Makawao and Maui Hands Gallery stores across Maui. ArabellaArk.com all in one tour. Make