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New sign at Honolulu office. Recycled Art
Mango, Not Koa
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By Naomi Sodetani
With its “green” origins and aesthetic, the beautiful new sign now gracing the entrance of The Nature Conservancy’s downtown Honolulu office perfectly embodies our conservation mission.
Emblazoned with the Conservancy’s new logo, the new sign reflects the global commitment of our organization in working with communities around the world to protect nature and preserve life.
Carved out of non-native wood to minimize the impact on Hawaii’s native forest, it also reflects the deep personal commitment of its creator, the noted environmental artist and craftsman Douglas “McD” Philpotts. The Native Hawaiian artist integrates cultural values in his business to promote environmental awareness and sustainable harvesting of limited island resources.
“McD is a real conservationist, and a true friend and partner to us,” says Pauline Sato, the Conservancy’s public awareness and action coordinator, who formerly managed Honouliuli Preserve. “He’s always looking for the best for the preserve, caring for the lands up there.”
Integrating Cultural and Environmental Values
Philpotts’ relationship with the Conservancy began in 1990, “when you guys moved into the neighborhood,” he smiles. His home and Mountain Wood Farm studio are nestled in Palehua, the forested highlands adjoining the Conservancy’s Honouliuli Preserve located in Oahu's Wai'anae Mountains.
Honouliuli Preserve was established through a long-term lease with the Estate of James Campbell. As a Campbell descendant, Philpotts grew up exploring these mountains, developing a close affinity for, and knowledge of, the area.
Sato recalls how Philpotts and his backhoe helped to clear the preserve’s access roads, which often got blocked by fallen trees after a heavy storm. During major fires that broke out over the years, she recalls, “he’d be the first person helping the firemen and our staff, telling them where to go.”
Philpotts grew up “just a typical island boy” immersed in the natural environment. “I'd go pig hunting, diving, throw net, everything. And I still go surfing every chance I get,” he says. “I am a lucky man with good health, a wonderful family and I live in the forest, play in the ocean and work with wood.”
Earlier in his career, Philpotts worked almost exclusively with koa, a beautiful indigenous hardwood prized by collectors for its lustrous color and richly variegated wood grain. Though koa is not endangered, it is very rare to find stands of large “grandfather” koa trees anymore — a loss that ripples further through the ecosystem, as koa trees play a critically important role as canopy cover, essential to sustain the fragile balance of life in native forests.
Realizing that his use of rare, native woods actually contributed to their demise, the woodworker opted for a greener approach. He now balances his art and livelihood with his passion to protect the natural environment of his island home.
Green Message
Today, Philpotts creates art, custom furniture and traditional Hawaiian canoes mainly from green “sourced” woods — fallen urban timber often discarded as green waste. The salvaged wood is cut on his own sawmill and dried in a passive solar kiln, then transformed to art imbued with a wonderful green message.
“For me, it was a matter of conscience, a no-brainer,” Philpotts says. “I live in the woods. If I cut down a tree in my yard, I don’t have the tree to look at anymore. To me, the trees already coming down, we should be using them first.”
Philpotts’ creative process also makes constructive use of invasive trees that are destructive in the native forest setting. “I’m trying to provide for my family and have as little negative impact on the planet as possible,” the artist says. “It’s not really changing what I’m doing, it’s changing how I’m doing it.”
Philpotts’ Makalea, a finely crafted sailing canoe, is made from albizia, the fast-growing invasive tree whose prevalence in Hawai‘i is shading out native forests, causing less soil cover and more runoff.
The canoe was showcased at the 2008 Hawaii Forest Industry Association WoodShow, an annual woodworking exhibition featuring the creations of Hawaii's best woodworkers. Rare Hawaiian woods like koa were discouraged or “very sparingly used in veneer, ways you can stretch and use wisely,” Philpotts explains.
The show encouraged the use of non-native and less-popular native woods as a way to relieve the global demand and pressure on rare, native tree species. “Artists and consumers both need to be more aware of their impact on the natural environment, Philpotts says. “Koa is so sought after – yet it only grows in this little zone of islands.”
Creating Change
The woodworker collaborated with his friend and neighbor, Steve Michellich, a skilled sign-maker, to produce the Conservancy's sign.
Philpotts’ meticulous attention to detail and love of nature are obvious, even in a simple sign. Throughout the day, the changing light illuminates finely etched letters and organic edges, and reveals rich, marbled swirls of chocolate, caramel and saffron hues embedded in the grain.
“As a craftsman, it’s a challenge to make pieces successful by design and make the highest, best use of my material,” Philpotts says. In this case, the raw slab was hewn from a non-native monkeypod tree salvaged from the same ahupua‘a that encompasses Honouliuli Preserve. When a non-profit organization cut down the tree to expand its 'Ewa facility, Philpotts hauled it away for his own later use.
“All trees have a life span, and they still have a useful life after they fall over," the artist philosophizes. "I don’t condemn a tree that's healthy and contributing. I just give it another life.”
People are loving Hawaii’s natural bounty of forest and sea to death, Philpotts says: “I’ve hiked in the forests and fished in Hawai‘i for more than 40 years and I’ve seen with my own eyes how the resources have diminished. The depletion is real, dramatic, and incredible in just one generation.”
Philpotts is co-developing a pilot project to teach Hawaiian artists on the Wai‘anae Coast how to develop cultural and sustainable economic opportunities using green waste materials.
“Because we live on an island we have a responsibility to preserve its beauty and natural resources for future generations and to teach our children these values,” says Philpotts. “We have to make sure there’s still ‘āina left.”
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Naomi Sodetani/TNC (sign at Honolulu office); Photo © Kainoa Philpotts (McD with 30-foot mango log); Photo: © Mountain Wood Farm (McD Philpotts with Halau Lōkahi students and canoe they made from non-native albizia log; McD with Makalea albizia canoe at Mountain Wood Farm studio).
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