Successful people commonly offer this same piece of advice: Do what you love. Daven Hee, one of Hawaii’s top contemporary ceramists, certainly embodies that perspective.

The artist and teacher not only nurtures creativity in his students at Mid-Pacific Institute and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, he continues to push the boundaries of his own art with dogged enthusiasm, working at all hours on new works. This makes for an extremely busy schedule — "I only go home to sleep," he said — but the lifestyle seems to fuel him as well.

"For me, doing art has always been about play. It takes away the seriousness of pots," he said, referring to the most classic of ceramic pieces.

That concept of play comes through clear and strong in a new group exhibit at the Louis Pohl Gallery titled "Ceramic (R)evolution: Atomic Ray Guns," a colorful, whimsical and astonishing collection by Hee and Chad Steve, Ashley Huang, Matias Braun and Erin Yuasa, current or former graduate students who studied with him. The show runs through June 28.

"Atomic ray guns" refers to the futuristic weapons Hee saw in sci-fi movies and cartoons during his childhood in the 1970s. They inspired endless hours of play.

"I made mine with broken wood from my fence, a rubber band from the newspaper, a clothespin and masking tape," he recalled with lots of laughter. "It was like the ray gun you’d see on TV! We carried those as we rode our bicycles, which were either horses or spaceships, all day long."

Many of the works are amazingly detailed, appearing as if they’ve been soldered and screwed together rather than crafted from clay. Hee says the artists even held them to see if they felt comfortable. For all that, the works are clearly not meant to be tools of destruction; rather, their fanciful design and bright colors reflect a sense of fun.

HEE ORIGINALLY took the ray-gun concept to a ceramic workshop group, Think Tank Ceramics, that he runs after hours Fridays at UH when "no mo’ school."

"We bring food and we challenge each other," he said. The artists agree on a topic beforehand and walk in the door knowing what they’ll throw on the potter’s wheel.

"The ray guns were meant to be creative, but they were also a technical exercise," said Hee. "In ceramics we’re taught that the teapot is the most technically advanced thing you can make in terms of composition and throwing all the parts. There are five parts in a teapot.

"But with a toy ray gun, there are maybe 20 or 30 parts, or even more. So the challenge to each other was who had the best gun."

The works that resulted weren’t all wheel-thrown. Huang and Yuasa ended up creating hand-built pieces. But for Hee it doesn’t matter.

"The challenges are a great way of teaching. It’s more informal, more fun, and the students learn more. I don’t mind throwing with my students. It’s educational and it levels the playing field," he said.

And, perhaps, Hee wants to pass on the spirit of play to others.

"For me the atomic ray gun represents a more carefree time when we had no responsibility other than to play and use our imagination," he said. "Chad called the ray gun a symbol of happiness, something playful and creative that cannot help but make you smile.

"Matias said it brought back memories of his childhood, when he played cowboys and Indians. It was when imagination was the name of the game. He said ray guns are an access to that imagination and they help him forget the ‘literalness’ of adulthood."