Logging Off
FOR TIMOTHY ALLAN SHAFTO, WORKING WITH HIS HANDS ISN’T JUST A MEANS TO AN END. It’s a way of life. He has experience in glass fabrication, making tabletops and doors and, at one point, worked with stone to create kitchen counters and fireplaces. But at the age of 19, when he started out producing commercial metal door handles, Shafto never dreamed he would become an artist.
Today, he’s turning out pioneering works from a 2,200-square-foot studio space in Hilo. Shafto’s techniques, which are of his own invention, create an exciting (and novel) type of art: the mixed-media colorflow painting. These pieces demand a unique process that incorporates regional Hawai‘i lumber, marine-grade epoxy resin and shimmering metallic pigments. Sometimes sand is in the mix, too.
“I really enjoy creating and I prefer to do something different than everybody else,” Shafto says. The Colorado native especially relishes how the paintings “take people to a place—it’s the magic of the art; it’s different for everybody.”
To wit, Shafto’s mixed-media colorflow works feel like little portals to the islands. He moved here after meeting Tiffany DeEtte, an interior designer; they married, honeymooned on Kaua‘i, and soon found themselves full-time Hawai‘i residents. It didn’t take long for the couple to discover the beauty of Hawai‘i’s prized koa wood. Shafto, who always wanted to try woodworking, got out his tools to give it a shot.
“That wood spoke to both of us—shimmering like a cat’s eye gemstone and native to our new home,” notes Shafto. “With Tiffanyʻs support, I began to make my living at woodworking.”
The couple collaborated to create keepsake jewelry boxes, standout furniture and signature platters with translucent details. Awards and critical recognition followed; Shafto figured he was “on the right path.” Always in search of coveted koa wood, the couple moved to Hawai‘i Island, in 2007, to sustainably source dead, felled and dying trees. Pulling from his previous fabrication skills, Shafto debuted his multi-media colorflow paintings in 2013. He feels the new art form is an exploration of Tropical Modernism, the architectural style focused on local materials and bringing the outdoors inside. Inspiration for his work comes from how he perceives Hawai‘i’s beauty—the colors of the mountains, the beaches, the water.
Using wood, resin and color pigments, Shafto depicts mountains using pieces of koa. Sand and mango wood serve as beaches; resin is colored to portray ocean and skies. And while his paintings have been inspired by actual places, the artist “prefers to create what he sees in his mind,” adding, “it’s not realistic, but more my abstract version of it.”
Each painting requires a multiple steps, and Shafto typically works on several paintings simultaneously. First, he makes a pencil drawing or pattern of the painting’s scene to scale. Then, he chooses the wood, which he effectively veneers, so only small amounts are used. Next, the artist carefully creates an intricate marquetry to join all the wood pieces together, like a jigsaw. Shafto glues the veneers together and mounts it all on panels, which keeps the pieces rigid and flat. An integral wood frame and small strands of wood within the scene act as barriers, helping contain not only the scene but the subsequent resin pours.
According to Shafto, when it comes to working with resin—a material that’s highly sensitive to heat—timing is everything. So he works quickly to pour the resin and begin adding the color pigments, which he says flow best when freshly applied.
“I get the colors where I want them, but they do migrate a bit,” smiles Shafto. “The result is 90 percent me and 10 percent what it wants to do.”
After the piece has cured, the resin is finely sanded to a shiny, smooth finish that matches the depth of the wood pieces. Finally, the frame is laquered for durability. Shafto’s paintings vary in shape and size, starting at two-by-three feet and, in some cases, stretching to upwards of seven feet tall. Each is unique, including his latest effort, the abstract “Honor Series.” It showcases the beauty and preciousness of Hawaiian koa, with a nod to Tropical Modernism. In some “Honor” paintings, a block of koa sits at the center, revered, like a mounted gold record album. In others, koa is interchanged with shapes of colored resin and clean lines of wood.
It’s something of a departure from earlier works like “Windswept” and “Secret Cove,” where the mixed-media colorflow process brought a new look to Hawai‘i landscape portraits. In some ways, it also feels like a fascinating
evolution of “Retirement,” a series featuring koa slivers cut in the shapes neckties, placed against a sparse backdrop. You can see some of those pieces at Tiffany’s Art Agency (tiffanysartagency.com), a well-stocked Hawi gallery co-owned and managed by the couple.
Still, Shafto’s mixed-media colorflow paintings are perhaps best experienced inside one’s own home, with time and space to study their intricacies, and consider the many elements—the islands, Topical Modernism, the koa tree and, of course, the artist’s busy hands—that came together for this work to exist.
Luckily for aesthetes in Hawai‘i, Shafto welcomes commissions.