Esther Shimazu

Esther Shimazu is the granddaughter of Japanese immigrant laborers and was born and raised in suburban Honolulu, Hawaii in a large, close-knit family. She attended public schools and the University of Hawaii/Manoa near her home before transferring to the University of Massachusetts/Amherst to obtain her Bachelor of Fine Art in 1980 and a Master of Fine Art in 1982.  Over the years, she has established herself as one of Hawaii's best-known artists.

Clay and a figurative approach have been present in her life from very early on into college, where her current style first came together. In her work, she strives to bring together her lifelong love of clay and the figure, using traditional vessel-making techniques to make what amount to animated pots.

Each stoneware sculpture is constructed body part by body part and assembled from individual toenails and teeth on to form a continuously hollow, lightweight but sturdy one-of-a-kind piece. Each is obsessively worked over, smoothed, accented with slips and oxides, bisque-fired, hand-sanded, colored further with rubbed-in oxides and more touches of color and a final airbrushing of oxides. Firing is to cone 5-6 oxidation and there is one last sanding, the better to touch.

Most of the imagery is of bald, nude chunky Asian women, unconcerned about clothing and hairdo, comfortable in their own skins. There is the occasional male figure or companion animal. All invite the viewer to play, but underneath, there's a hint that they might bite.