(mellow music)
- My grandfather was born in 1858.
When he was 20 years old,
he immigrated to Hawaii.
My grandfather on his farm,
in Kula, Maui,
grew corn and lima beans.
He became very successful.
I decided to honor him,
by creating this piece that's called,
Soil Toil.
(upbeat music)
I'm a person who is
totally into the visual arts.
I have found that art,
enriches my life in so many ways.
Design is truly important part
about the way I live,
the way I work,
the way I analyze things.
My name is Ronald Tau Wo Ho.
- Ron Ho is a pillar here
in the Pacific Northwest for craft,
especially in the field of jewelry.
(upbeat music)
- Ron's work is,
you know kind of a part of a school of,
jewelry making,
that kind of, found object,
narrative story.
- Ron really sees deeper,
not just shapes,
not just design.
The story is as rich as the elements
of the design itself.
- Art records life you know.
And he loves what life is about.
And he loves recording something.
And putting it together.
- They also reflect his love of travel.
And love of objects.
And then his particular way of putting things together
is unique.
Uniquely Ron.
- Ron is a master.
He's been around long enough.
He knows his voice.
- They either tell a personal story
or a story related to his family.
Or they tell a story about the collector
who commissioned the piece.
Or they might tell a story about
one of his travels.
He has traveled extensively throughout Asia.
There's something about his,
it was always like a whole meal.
(laughs)
It's beautiful, and it was full of many references.
- They're almost tribal looking.
They look like ceremonies.
Kinda ceremonial pieces.
I think that's unique.
That he recreated the ethnic
in the modern day.
In respects to his culture
and what he was seeing in his world.
- The Chinese pronunciation of my Chinese name
is Tao Wo.
And it was given to me by my paternal grandmother.
I was very fortunate because of the fact
that both my maternal grandparents came from China.
I was born in Honolulu.
- [Woman] The Hawaiian part of him is very important.
He comes from a very close family.
And his family's very vital to him.
Gave him a sense of meaning and purpose.
- [Ron] Both of my parents' families,
they had their own beliefs.
And many of these beliefs are ways
that became ingrained in me.
My father's side of the family,
the Hakau's were farmers.
And my mother's side of the family,
they were the business people.
- It was basically the American dream kind of story.
You know, came as poor immigrants,
very poor immigrants and made their way.
And made life better for the next generation
and the next generation.
And Ron's generation was the first one
to go to college
in his family.
All of the children in his family went to college.
- My father had suggested
that maybe I might like to become a teacher.
My sister was at Pacific Lutheran.
Kept writing to me and saying oh, you should come here
to the Northwest.
It's really a lovely place.
And this is a small school.
And the people are wonderful
and you'll really like it.
I attended Pacific Lutheran college
from 1954 to 1958
when I graduated.
I started teaching in Hoquiam, Washington.
I knew that I was not going to stay in Hoquiam forever.
I applied and eventually was accepted
into the Bellevue school district.
I was somebody who wanted
to get the very best
creative work out of my students.
- My first class with Ron was
at Highland Junior High School.
Which was in Bellevue in the seventh grade.
First of all, he was different than most
of the other teachers there because he was Chinese American.
And he had a wonderful sense of humor.
- The junior high thing was all right
but the little kids were his forte.
- Notice again the design around...
At first when they told me I had to teach half time
in the elementary,
I thought oh, I don't want to do that.
Teach those little kids.
Once I started teaching them,
there was such an inspiration.
They were so creative.
My main focus on them was to help them
to see in a more aesthetic,
more visual way.
- Children could do great things with,
really great art as an inspiration.
And they did.
They delivered the goods.
Because he believed they could.
And he totally gave them that idea.
He's had many of those students
who have come to him over the years
and said how important he was as a vital part of their life.
- In your box is probably a light and dark ...
You have to inspire then in some way.
And how do you do that?
Well first of all,
it could be showing them something that's visual.
I had all of these objects from my travels.
And many times this would be an inspiration.
- He would take the actual artifacts to the class.
So he might take an Indian blanket.
And everybody would draw an Indian blanket.
And it'd be one with a priceless,
museum type object that he borrowed
from someone who actually had one.
So the kids could actually touch it and see it.
- It was linked to things in the world,
which was a good education for the kids.
(soft music)
- I believe that my early paintings as I started out,
I was still exploring
my talents as a painter.
I honestly have to say they were okay.
But I honestly feel that I never devoted the time
and intensity to my paintings as much as when I started
to make my jewelry.
- Ron's paintings were impressionistic.
In that they were kind of a little bit foggy,
a little bit,
just an impression of something.
He wasn't realistic.
He was working with real landscape
or something I know that his jewelry's
better than his painting was.
(laughs)
- The way I happen to come into making jewelry
was I was finishing up my
Master's in Art Education
at the University of Washington.
Ramona Solberg, who was teaching at Central Washington
came over to teach that last summer quarter.
And I had met Ramona before.
And I said to her, you know I've always wanted
to take a jewelry class.
So I signed up for that class.
- Ruth Penington was there, late 50s she was there.
And she was kind of the anchor
that started that program.
And later on Ramona and Ron,
because he studied with her,
became part of that whole community of jewelers.
- Ramona Solberg was the catalyst.
She was the mother of all of us.
She was the guiding principle of
probably why we were all doing it.
- Here I was working in the studio.
But I was terrible.
I ended up burning and melting
some of my pieces.
Ramona always said that I was a good designer
but I was a nervous solderer.
(laughs)
- [Woman] Ramona's opinion mattered more to Ron
than anybody else's.
She really was his teacher.
- Ramona who had traveled around the world
had picked up all these wonderful artifacts.
Which she started incorporating into her jewelry.
So one day,
she gave me a bone domino
because she loved polka dots.
I took that piece,
starting designing around it.
And I assembled it with other bone
and wood pieces.
I came up with the name All Fall Down
because of the ivory domino.
And of course when you play dominoes,
you usually stand them up and then
when you touch one,
they suddenly collapse.
And I guess in many ways,
it can't be a metaphor about life.
That became the major piece
that started me on my journey
into working with found objects.
- [Man] The germ of many of his pieces
have started with objects
or with an idea of how you would
turn an object into a story.
- When he first began you could see the reflection
of Ramona Solberg.
As he grew and time changed,
she helped him become the Chinese person
that he is by looking at his roots.
And then that was reflected in his creation
of his art.
(soft music)
- Ramona said that he made her jewelry better
than she made her own.
Because he really picked up on what she did.
She was his traveling companion.
And she was his mentor
and his best friend in many ways.
- There were four jewelers who were very,
very, very close friends.
Ron Ho,
Ramona Solberg,
Kiff Slemmons,
and Laurie Hall.
That was kinda the base
of the best jewelry art in the Northwest.
- And we were all such close friends.
- We were a school of thought.
And we were all different.
And with the danger of becoming
like each other.
We were inspired by each other
and competing with each other.
I mean, I won't deny that.
It was really hot stuff, you know?
It was.
- The jewelry arts community
always has struck me in this town
as very generous spirited to each other.
Less competitive than you might imagine.
And generous.
And so Ron was part of that.
- They were so willing to share their information.
They didn't feel like they had
to keep anything close to them.
Because they were gonna lose something.
- And I was starting this necklace
and I had solved the pendant shape.
But I wasn't quite sure how I was gonna attach
the neck piece to it.
We were all sitting around.
And then I said, well I'm going to the restroom.
So when I went to the restroom and I came back,
Ramona says we got it solved.
(laughs)
She had a piece of paper.
She drew exactly how it should attach.
And that's how it all worked out.
- They have to share ideas because
this is how they learn the next trick.
(laughs)
- They are kindred spirits
in friendship and in the art form that they chose.
- It was a very exciting time.
It was the hippy dippy time, you know?
(laughs)
It was fun, it was fun.
- [Ron] I had started to travel.
And I began to see so many other cultures.
- [Man] Ron is really fun to travel with.
He takes great joy in all things
that happen on a trip.
He loves the journey.
He loves the people.
(oriental music)
- And I'm always going to markets as an example.
You never know exactly what's going to inspire you
to pick up a piece and suddenly say
this is what I'd like to have.
I think you have to actually see it.
And it somehow gives you a certain vibration.
I want it to be
something that relates to their cultural values.
Or things that they believe in.
- I think Ron is genuinely motivated
by and inspired by the objects.
He really wants to kind of showcase them in a way
that it's his story.
It's his narrative.
But he loves using those things.
I think he feels somehow connected
to the makers of those things as well.
You know, the history of the object.
- When I bring these artifacts home,
I might have an idea to begin with.
And I might find pieces that I feel represent
this idea that I'm trying to do.
But other times,
I honestly have to say that the whole idea comes
after I've found certain imagery
that I feel go together.
And sometimes it may be
because the colors are right
or it might be because the way
the pieces are carved that
have a certain movement to them.
That they actually work together.
And usually what I do when I'm creating,
is I lay them on my sketchbook.
And I move them around.
And then I start the drawing around them
to see how I'm going to frame the piece.
- I don't know if you've ever watched a jeweler
but the work is quite slow.
To cutting out a piece of silver can take days.
And it's that kind of patience,
that takes a long time to get everything ready,
and then when it comes time to solder,
everything can go wrong.
(blade sawing)
Since your drawing is in two dimensional,
what happens is then you have the hard part
is how do you make it in three dimensional?
There are all these problems that need to get solved
about how am I going to mount some of these found objects?
That are going to be able to be stable in those positions.
And they're also going to make
a beautiful composition as well.
There's a lot of thought actually
that goes into making those designs.
- Those decisions you make when something has to move,
or from one image to another,
that's hard work.
Because it's gotta not only look right,
but it's gotta make sense up in your head.
- Ron's pieces are almost all silver.
You know, there's peculiarities to that kind of metal.
With the kinds of fabrication that Ron does,
it's fairly precise.
And it has to fit just so.
- The design of it takes time too.
So when he thinks about what imagery he's gonna use,
or what particular topic that he wants that piece
to be tied into,
I think the designing of it,
people forget about that.
And then you add the time
of the hand labor work on it.
- And the soldering and all that.
It's fun.
It's hard.
It hurts.
It isn't easy at all.
- Working through the years,
it's interesting to go back
and look at your original pieces
and see actually they were quite simple
in their construction.
- [Woman] And then there comes the time
when he starts making all of the pieces
and is no longer so dependent
or maybe, just that he was discovering more things
as he found his soul and his heart
and his life.
- [Ron] As I became more skilled,
I could see how I could develop the construction
so that the pieces could flow together.
To be able to look and see how you could
actually give life to a stiff piece
of metal and make it actually flow.
And how do you then make it so that
it speaks on its own?
It's something that you really have to develop.
- [Man] Ron's work is sculpture pure and simple.
I mean, it's adornment but it's also
each object stands by itself.
You could hang it to be seen in a 3D context.
- [Woman] Many, many people, including me,
put their pieces on the wall as sculpture.
- This particular piece is almost like a painting for me.
And so I like to have it out and look at it everyday.
- Ron's work is, it does reach out and says hello.
And when people purchase from me,
I say you have to be ready.
That people are gonna walk up to you
and not look you in the eye,
but look at your chest and say tell me about your jewelry.
Or they will even reach out and touch it.
- I always thought of myself as being an American.
And that's it.
I never thought of myself as being Chinese.
As I was working on my jewelry,
I made things out of fun objects
that maybe were old toys,
or very common things.
But eventually Ramona said to me,
you know you oughta think
about your growing up in Hawaii,
and your Chinese heritage.
Which I think is something you should explore.
And that's when I began to do that.
I think it has been reflected
in my art tremendously.
(soft oriental music)
I started looking and thinking about all the things
that my parents had said that I began
to really appreciate those things that they told me.
And I was able to use those ideas into creating
so many of the narrative thoughts in my jewelry.
(soft oriental music)
- I think one of the most beautiful pieces he did
when he was doing this kind of searching for his roots,
his Chinese roots.
He did a piece called Lily Foot.
His grandmother had bound feet.
And he made a little tiny shoe.
With a foot in it.
That's all about him and his grandmother
and the history of the world.
And he captures all of that.
- My maternal grandmother who came from the Canton area,
when she arrived in Hawaii,
she had bound feet.
They wrapped her feet when she was a child.
When she walked, she was walking on her toes.
I remember her having these rags
that she would wrap and unwrap her feet.
At that time,
it was a custom in China.
Because they called it the lily foot.
Which is a symbol of beauty.
Much as those beliefs at the time
didn't mean anything,
they eventually became
infused into my thinking,
my thoughts,
and my ways of creating
narration in my jewelry.
- For him, there was this idea
of regaining his own identity.
Or finding a way through his work
through his artistic expression
to claim cultural identity as a Chinese.
- When I had a show, I titled that show
Becoming Chinese.
Because I thought that really depicts
what really happened to me.
It truly transformed me
from being just an American
into really respecting my Chinese heritage.
To be able to have a show here
I think is a great honor.
- I think Becoming Chinese,
that whole series of projects
that Ron did with his jewelry allowed him to
ask questions of his own heritage
in a way that he hadn't really pondered much before.
- Everybody's been really wonderful.
- Great.
- [Ron] I have gone back to my Chinese roots.
I like Chinese furniture.
I like Chinese food.
I love the art.
So it all has become a very important
part of my life really.
- The idea of Becoming Chinese
defined his journey both
artistically and as a human being.
- [Ron] It's always been a wonderful rise
as to what's happened in my life and my career
as a jewelry artist.
- We're all aware of Ron's jewelry,
his work,
his commitment to it,
his shows,
his resume,
it's beautiful and all of that.
But in and amongst that,
I think it's really important
that people need to know what he did
in all those years of teaching.
- He makes things fun.
He's a community person definitely.
- So much of Ron is about Seattle.
And about that house.
There isn't hardly anybody who's been involved
in the arts that Ron hasn't known.
It's been his whole persona.
And that's a very important part
of Seattle history really.
He likes to bring people together.
He sees that as one of his roles
as a person is to kinda bring like minded people together
through friendship.
- He valued other artists and he was valued
by other artists.
- Being an important part of our relationship
is that we're both gay.
And Ron's being gay and being pretty
open about being gay for a long time,
has been a pretty important part
of I think of his identity.
A number of Ron's friends who you know,
are kind of out and also important artists,
those were a really valuable part
of the art scene and also part of Ron's life.
That was something that they shared
before it was really popular to share it.
- I guess I have to be thankful of having
had such a rich history and background
about where I came from.
And how I was able to relate it into my art.
And as far as my legacy,
I hope that in the end,
they will always remember
the things that I have made,
the places that I've been,
how I've inspired other people.
- What people remember somebody by
or remember somebody for
isn't necessarily all the stuff that they made,
but the kind of person that they are.
And have been.
And I'd say that that's what I think people
should know about Ron Ho,
is that he's an amazing, loving human being
that communicated that really well
through his art as well as his life
and his friendships.
(soft piano music)
(people clapping)