"Clay," a ceramics exhibit opening this week at Windward Community College’s Gallery ‘Iolani, features 13 Hawaii ceramists selected by art professor and museum director Toni Martin. It is the gallery’s first ceramics-only show.

Martin started the selection process three years ago, looking for "a good, rounded group of artists working in ceramics in the state of Hawaii to show their work together in one exhibit."

As it turned out, many of the artists were teachers as well, such as Jennifer Owen of Maui Community College, Shi­geru Miya­moto from Leeward Community College and Daven Hee from Mid-Pacific Institute.

"That was not my concept; it’s just that I thought they were really good artists, and I thought it was important to represent what was going on in our colleges, not just the university," Martin said. (Suzanne Wolfe, professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii, also contributed to the exhibit.)

One of those educators is her colleague Paul Nash. Among his four pieces is an abstract, high-fire stoneware work called "Layers of the Universe," which looks somewhat like a bunch of handkerchiefs loosely piled into a cone.

It represents the concept of "bones to earth, life, death, rebirth and the relationship of layers," Nash said. "It seems like we live in layers as far as our economy — there’s different economic brackets. In science there’s layers to the molecular structure."

Nash worked on the piece for 10 years, rolling or stretching the clay into slabs, then folding and shaping each by hand. 

"I was trying to get a light and airy kind of feeling, but yet it’s from the earth," Nash said. "It almost has the feel of a lava flow, a certain kind of movement. I think of water a lot."

It might seem cliche that a professor at Cha­mi­nade University, the private Catho­lic school in Kai­muki, would infuse spirituality into his work, but ceramics professor Yukio Ozaki found faith through his work.

"I didn’t know when I took the job 29 years ago it was a Catho­lic school," he said. "Through ceramics I became extremely faith-oriented, meaning I began to believe in God, beyond my own knowledge and power, and it was the greatest blessing in my life because I was a complete atheist before."

His work "Mother and Child" consists of two figures of stoneware, one large, one small, and at first blush seems like a clear reference to the Madonna and Child figures of art history, but it didn’t start out that way.

Ozaki began by cutting an abstract, curved pattern in a slab of clay, then building a figure around it using coils of clay, eventually finishing with a shrouded, humble figure. "When I finished, I thought, ‘Oh my, it’s kind of squatty, but it’s like the female form giving a loving hug shape.’ So I thought I’d make a small child."

Ozaki does not consider himself devoutly religious. Rather, he calls himself a "God freak," an attitude that enables him to enjoy the serendipity of life and use it in his art. The hive­like "Ancient Dwellings," for instance, was inspired by his experience of remixing clumps of leftover clay.

One piece "looked so nice" that he decided to make something of it. Back in his shop, he started carving it.

"The inside structure, hidden, it was so fascinating, and I realized that there is so much that you don’t see," he said. "I thought, ‘I need to find what I cannot see.’"

Sayoko Kay Mura has stories on her mind when she creates her whimsical ceramic figures. She attended a workshop on Native American culture and saw storytellers who always told their tales with children on their laps. Her work "O-Ba-Chan and Her Children" is modeled on that image.

"She’s got her little shoes and her shawl and the hat she used to wear," Mura said. "And she had eight children who lived, so those are all my uncles and aunties, and my mother’s among them." 

Mura also has some fanciful "beasts" on exhibit. They look like something out of author Maurice Sendak’s children’s books, but they also represent a personal aspect of Mura’s life.

"I did cats and beasts for a long time, and they were like female and male, so they would dance together," she said. "The cats I think were my alter ego, and the beasts represented men, or the male force. There was a relationship. I’ve always spoken about relationships in different ways."

The figures are in keeping with a whimsical aspect of the show, which pleased Martin.

"There’s a lot of playfulness in the exhibition, which I think is important in any art," she said.