Pop Heart Totem #2 Sculpture

Hap Sakwa (Born December 6, 1950) is an American sculptor and commercial photographer. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leader in the modern wood turning movement that revolutionized the craft, elevating it to an art form, creating narrative sculptural objects using polychromed wood and found objects. From 1988 until 1993 Sakwa turned another artistic corner producing a series of pop art mosaic assemblage, juxtaposing Americana imagery, word play and bright colorful patterns in ceramic tile. Beginning in 1994 he turned his attention to photography becoming one of the country's most distinguished jewelry photographers with images featured on the covers and in editorial compositions of leading books and periodicals regarding the art and craft of jewelry. Life and Works Hap Sakwa was born in Los Angeles, California. Following the death of his parents in 1954, he moved to Maryland with his two brothers. During the 1960’s he attended the Milton Hershey School, a boarding school for orphans in Pennsylvania and graduated in 1968. It was there he learned the value of self-motivation that would later be of enormous value as he pursued a life as a craft artist. Sakwa attended the University of Maryland drifting aimlessly in academia never able to focus on a particular field of study. He dropped out of the university in 1970 after attending the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in the summer of 1969. It was there that the he was first inspired to search for an alternative life style as a craft artist. Traveling across the country in 1972 he settled in the small southern California town of Isla Vista. There he was introduced to the works of an emerging class of artisans, like Bob Stocksdale and Art Carpenter, who were revolutionizing the field of American woodworking. In a small shop of merely one hundred square feet, Sakwa made small lathe turned vessels and carved figurative sculpture utilizing the labyrinthine structure of native California root burls. In 1977 Sakwa was featured in an early issue of Fine Woodworking Magazine and in the same publisher’s first Biennial Design Book. This national recognition and the advancement of the craft show movement, that provided an exhibition space for new and innovative design, enabled and motivated him to expand his visual language. This was the beginning of a journey to discover a relevant and compelling artistic pursuit.