The Kailua Village Artists Gallery’s featured artist for the month of November is award winning photographer Thomas Carey. He became interested in photography while he was in junior high school in Southern California, just taking pictures of his friends surfing and skateboarding. He would wrap his little Kodak Instamatic camera in plastic to keep the water out.
As an adult, living in Ventura, CA, Carey lived close to the beautiful Channel Islands, only 11 miles off the coast, where he began SCUBA diving in 1977. Soon, he gave up the Instamatic and bought a Nikonos III underwater camera. While diving for lobster, abalone,and scallops and spearfishing with his friends, he would dive with his camera instead of a speargun. Quickly becoming more serious, he bought a used Oceanic housing for his Nikon F-2 camera, which allowed the use of many lenses and so, more creative control.
After retiring and moving from California to Hawaii early in 2004, Carey had more time to follow his passion, which is traveling the world to do marine photography. His interests in photography are underwater, marine topside, travel, landscapes, and portraits. His photographs have been featured in publications such as: Skin Diver Magazine, Sportfishing Magazine, Nat Geo Explorer, and California Fish and Game Magazine.
While not diving, Carey enjoys making bowls, vases, and all shapes of wood. He specializes in Hawaiian woods, including Koa, Mango, Norfolk pine, Milo, Monkeypod, and whatever nature generously provides. His work includes traditional bowl shapes, such as Umeke, used by Hawaiians for centuries, as well as more modern vases, platters, hollow vessels and spheres. He allows the wood to suggest what shape the finished piece of art will be, always looking to enhance the natural grains and swirls that are loved by collectors of fine wood objects. All works of art are created, start to finish, in his studio in Kona.
Thomas Carey invites you to come by and talk story with him when he is working at the gallery on Wednesdays, November 1, and 29, and Friday 17, 2023. The Kailua Village Artists Gallery is located in the Kona Marketplace, 74-5729 Alii Drive, Suite C-110 in Kailua-Kona. The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call 329-6653, visit www.kailuavillageartists.com or on Facebook: Kailua Village Artists.
