Local artisan examines attraction to glass

Sculptor David Harada, once an aspiring engineer, has always found himself drawn to glass.

“It’s one of the only things that you can really see through and also construct images within the piece, other than just the outside surface,” he said.

The Mililani artist loved its transparency, refractivity and molten qualities, which allow it to be perceived as both liquid and solid. Initially an engineering major at the University of Hawaii, the artist gravitated toward the Art and Art History Department’s glass-blowing program and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

“I like to analyze how things work,” said Harada, 24. “That same thought process transferred over into glass.”

His current technique, creating highly polished sculptures made of laminated sheet glass, was acquired at the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington state, where he studied as a recipient of a scholarship award. Next year he will manage the glass studio at UH and also return to Pilchuck.

The pieces on display at Waikiki Parc are the latest in his series of sculptures.

“I look at these sculptures as layers of thoughts,” he said. “During the process it takes a really long time. I myself am analyzing the glass and how to construct it into more substantial forms.

“Each piece reminds me of what I was going through at the time I was making it.”