Koa Stevens | Artist | Sonoma County, CA, USA
Koa Stevens is a wood sculptor born on the Big Island of Hawaii and raised intercontinentally, weaving his story through a tapestry of global cultures, exotic sawdust, and woodchips. With a carving lineage passed down through his Rotuman father, Koa is reaquainting with his Polynesian heritage from the vantage point of distance. As a diasporic artist from a Pan-Pacific lineage, he has found his home in the study of ancient symbolism, reweaving these ancestral threads into a modern-day expression of neo-primitive, Pan-Pacific futurism.
Koa’s work is defined by his unique approach to carving, where he channels the flow of patterns through the cambium layers of wood. This technique, influenced by his collaborations with Native American, Aboriginal, and Polynesian communities, explores the deep, intricate relationship between global culture and nature. Koa creates pan-oceanic cultural motifs that bridge the past and present, embodying the wisdom of his cultural roots while preserving a vision of the future.
His art is a confluence of lived experiences, shaped by direct interactions with cultural elders, wisdom keepers, storytellers, and living treasures from around the world. Each piece Koa creates is a vessel for both ancestral knowledge and contemporary expression. By integrating his personal narrative with his Rotuman heritage, they are living records of the diasporic experience, carving out spaces for connection, healing, and reflection.
Koa’s current work is deeply inspired by a commitment to environmental stewardship. He focuses on addressing the wine industry’s excessive use of oak, particularly the thousands of discarded wine barrels that accumulate each year. As a wood carver, Koa finds oak to be a remarkable medium-its fine cambium making it perfect for mallet and chisel. Through his craft, he seeks to honor these trees by giving them new life, preserving their story beyond their initial purpose. Once towering sentinels, these oaks offered more than just tannins for wine-they were living entities that provided sustenance and strength. By sourcing barrels from local Sonoma County natural winemakers, Koa transforms them into vibrant wooden canvases that bring color and new purpose to the world, continuing the legacy of these trees in art and life.
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Cultural Group Carving
Taking a chisel for a walk with non linear expressions between the cambium layers of wood grain. Group carving classes, working alongside indigenous tribes and their youth, bridging the symbols and hands on expression invoking inner depth in spirit and in wood. As a woodcarver coming from an Oceanic lineage, these classes provide an adjunct…
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