About The Artist
Tamsen Fox is an eclectic multimedia fine artist, born and raised in Nu’uanu, schooled at Punahou and resides on O'ahu, Hawaii. Fox has enjoyed a life-long passion for artistic expression. Her parents, Jack and Marliss Fox, noticed her innate artistic ability very early on and nurtured it, sending her to Honolulu Academy of Arts during the summer months. She also danced hula as a girl with the noted
auntie Nona Beamer as her kumu so gourds have always been in her life and continue to be the heartbeat of her world. Tamsen has close ties with her culture and brings forth a deep understanding from her creative world. “I want to revive the ancient cultural arts and seek the spirit of the kupuna within to impart the methods used by Hawaiian ancestors and meld them with the contemporary understandings. When I get a green gourd off the vine, I call forth the Ni’ihau ipu masters and become one with them. The result is reflected in each piece with a mana infused in the design. It is my honor to represent and present this art with as much grace and splendor as my teachers imparted to me.
I truly live an inspired life."
Fox has progressively expanded her range of interests with varied applications. Current work includes ipu (gourd) art, watercolor, silk painting, metal art, driftwood sculptures, feather art (hatbands), palm bark sculpture and baskets, and acrylics. Animals, Hawaiian designs, Amerindian imagery, musical instruments, spirit masks, and mystical archetypes are just a few of the subjects Fox recreates in her art.
Being a native of Hawai’i, Fox's work embodies the culture as well as the mystical spirit of the Hawaiian islands. She uses the beautiful fauna and flora that delight the senses in everyday life on the islands. Much of Fox’s gourd work is embellished with the ancient traditions of applying pine needles, shells, leather, feathers, bone, semi-precious stones, crystals, beads, sand, and a great variety of other natural products that she can find. Special techniques used in her gourd art include pyro-engraving, painting, dying, engraving, inlay work, and etching. She is also skilled in using the Ni'ihau Method of carving a green gourd then filling it with dye, sometimes coffee and sometimes sandalwood bark, resulting in a uniquely Hawaiian method of decoration.
Fox’s work can be found in a variety of publications, galleries, and private collections throughout the world. Her paintings have been publicized in national and regional magazines (such as Southwest Art and Surface Design Magazine) as well as on the web. Her art is represented in numerous galleries in California, Hawaii, Sedona, AZ, Florida, and New Mexico.
Fox has been gratified by the acquisition of her work by many collectors such as Robert Redford (in his private collection as well as the Sundance Catalogue), Native American artist the late R. C. Gorman, and Queen Elizabeth II to name a few.
She has been retained by a number of corporate clients. As an example, Nordstrom Department Store carried her original hand-painted “wearable art.” This high-end silk clothing line was exclusive to Nordstrom stores in northern California.
“I am constantly amazed not only by the joy derived from this creative art process, but also witnessing the spiritual journey from perception to creation. My work is a very personal rite,” she explains. “My work is an intimate, heartfelt expression of my feelings based on my own life experiences and my own story. My intent is to create an experience which impacts the collector with a sense of tranquility, beauty and balance. My job is to give the spirit behind my creation the magic to carry it through to its recipient. I like to call it heart art.”
~Tamsen Kealohamakua Fox
auntie Nona Beamer as her kumu so gourds have always been in her life and continue to be the heartbeat of her world. Tamsen has close ties with her culture and brings forth a deep understanding from her creative world. “I want to revive the ancient cultural arts and seek the spirit of the kupuna within to impart the methods used by Hawaiian ancestors and meld them with the contemporary understandings. When I get a green gourd off the vine, I call forth the Ni’ihau ipu masters and become one with them. The result is reflected in each piece with a mana infused in the design. It is my honor to represent and present this art with as much grace and splendor as my teachers imparted to me.
I truly live an inspired life."
Fox has progressively expanded her range of interests with varied applications. Current work includes ipu (gourd) art, watercolor, silk painting, metal art, driftwood sculptures, feather art (hatbands), palm bark sculpture and baskets, and acrylics. Animals, Hawaiian designs, Amerindian imagery, musical instruments, spirit masks, and mystical archetypes are just a few of the subjects Fox recreates in her art.
Being a native of Hawai’i, Fox's work embodies the culture as well as the mystical spirit of the Hawaiian islands. She uses the beautiful fauna and flora that delight the senses in everyday life on the islands. Much of Fox’s gourd work is embellished with the ancient traditions of applying pine needles, shells, leather, feathers, bone, semi-precious stones, crystals, beads, sand, and a great variety of other natural products that she can find. Special techniques used in her gourd art include pyro-engraving, painting, dying, engraving, inlay work, and etching. She is also skilled in using the Ni'ihau Method of carving a green gourd then filling it with dye, sometimes coffee and sometimes sandalwood bark, resulting in a uniquely Hawaiian method of decoration.
Fox’s work can be found in a variety of publications, galleries, and private collections throughout the world. Her paintings have been publicized in national and regional magazines (such as Southwest Art and Surface Design Magazine) as well as on the web. Her art is represented in numerous galleries in California, Hawaii, Sedona, AZ, Florida, and New Mexico.
Fox has been gratified by the acquisition of her work by many collectors such as Robert Redford (in his private collection as well as the Sundance Catalogue), Native American artist the late R. C. Gorman, and Queen Elizabeth II to name a few.
She has been retained by a number of corporate clients. As an example, Nordstrom Department Store carried her original hand-painted “wearable art.” This high-end silk clothing line was exclusive to Nordstrom stores in northern California.
“I am constantly amazed not only by the joy derived from this creative art process, but also witnessing the spiritual journey from perception to creation. My work is a very personal rite,” she explains. “My work is an intimate, heartfelt expression of my feelings based on my own life experiences and my own story. My intent is to create an experience which impacts the collector with a sense of tranquility, beauty and balance. My job is to give the spirit behind my creation the magic to carry it through to its recipient. I like to call it heart art.”
~Tamsen Kealohamakua Fox
