Lawyers sculpt out time to Paws for a Cause
by Donica Kaneshiro | Dec. 23, 2019
The animal auction is over.
All the cats and dogs that had taken up residence in the Hawaiian Electric Legal department have found good homes, and the Oahu Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) will receive $1,000.
Five of our attorneys — Duke Oishi, Brendan Bailey, Noa Dettweiler, Eaton O’Neill and Kevin Oda — created 11 ceramic animals that were auctioned off in November and December in a unique charity project they called Paws for a Cause.
The 4- to 6-inch sculptures garnered a total of 73 bids and each animal sold for $50-$120, raising a total of $845.06. The lawyers added their own contribution, rounding out the donation to $1,000.
“This all started because our VP, Erin Kippen, encouraged the Legal Division to get more involved with community events,” Duke said. Members of the Legal Division took that challenge to heart, tasking each group with leading a community service project.
The Claims department coordinated a beach clean-up, the regulatory attorneys organized a donation to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, the Land and Rights of Way group arranged volunteers to go to the Hawaii Foodbank to sort food donations, and the attorneys in the Operations & Compliance department put together Thanksgiving meal baskets to donate to a local domestic violence shelter.
The transactional attorneys decided to leverage the talents of ceramic artist Noa to learn a new skill and raise funds for an animal charity.
Duke said they knew it was an ambitious undertaking, but “we always want to be different.”
It was under Noa’s guidance that the group gathered for five hours on a Saturday afternoon in September to learn the painstaking process of hand-building the clay creatures. “We thought it would be a fun get-together, a bonding sort of thing to make our own animals,” Duke said. And while it was fun, “it was a lot more work than we thought.”
Noa had planned to guide his coworkers through forming animals in the same basic pose, but the lawyers had their own ideas. “We all just went our own way,” Duke said. “We each came up with our own animal and our own animal took on its own characteristics and personality.”
Noa said: “With ceramics, even just a little bit of pushing here or there forms the details better. Like with Duke’s, you’ve got to push the muzzle out a bit to make it look poofy and more like a cat.”
Noa dried the sculptures and took them to the kiln at the Hawaii Potters’ Guild, where he is a member. Weeks later, the group gathered for an evening of glazing in the conference room and Noa took the pieces to the kiln again.
After 10 hours of labor, the result was 11 one-of-a-kind sculptures, four from the budding artists and seven from the experienced hands of Noa.
“I think I have a newfound appreciation for how much time and effort it takes to make one of these,” Duke said. “Towards the end, I was feeling really attached toward it. It’s my masterpiece, my baby.”
Noa said with a laugh: “I was really surprised at how well they came out and how well they did because I was like ‘Oh man, this could be kind of embarrassing.’ But it’s not embarrassing at all! Because they did a really good job.”
You can see all the creations here.
Donica Kaneshiro is a communications consultant at Hawaiian Electric Company.
