How 2 artists traded in big city life and found success

Rajan Sami






They may not be big names in Fiji’s art scene yet—but chances are you’ve come across their work.
The elegant metal dolphins suspended from the ceiling of duty-free chain Prouds’ Nadi flagship is the handiwork of Savusavu-based metal artist, Shane Bower.
Similarly, fellow Hidden Paradise artist Katrina Brown’s mosaic tile work can be found at numerous resorts around the country including The Naviti Hotel on the Coral Coast, Castaway Island in the Mamanucas and Koro Sun Resort in Savusavu.
Since moving, separately, to Savusavu 11 years ago, each has carried on with their chosen craft—in quiet and without much fanfare.
But that’s about to change. The duo has recently joined forces with Savusavu-based J. Hunter Pearls Fiji’s Leanne Hunter, who serves as a mentor/agent and an all-around whip cracker.
If Hunter has anything to do with it, we’ll be seeing more of both artists’ work on the mainland.
Prior to moving to Vanua Levu in 1998, both Brown and Bower ran successful businesses in Suva in the 90s.
Neither had much reason to leave the capital.
Brown, along with fellow artist Tessa Miller, started The Art Plant, a successful mosaic tile business in the early 90s.
Together, they created custom designs for pools and bathrooms at many of Fiji’s leading resorts.
Bower, on the other hand, founded his wrought-iron furniture company, Bistro Design in Wailada, Lami around the same time.
“People would come with magazine [clippings] and I would put the designs together for them,” he says.
So why the move? Each artist has their reasons.

Piecing Together Pieces
Born and raised in Suva, Katrina Brown, 42, is the one with the romantic attachment to Savusavu.
Her mother, Jean Brown (nee Dods) hails from Balaga.
“Since I was 12-years-old, I I had this thing in my head that I was meant to be in Savusavu,” she says. “It was a bee in my bonnet.”
An artistic child, Brown also knew she wanted to do creative work.
After finishing sixth form in New Zealand (where she was able to indulge in art lessons), Brown took a year off, spending six months on a hippie farm in Australia.
It was here she met a mosaic artist. Upon her return, Brown “went to Vinod Patel and dug around in their big rubbish bins [for broken tiles]”.
Together with Miller, she experimented with the craft.
“With mosaics, you have to be sure of the design as the work is forever,” she says in hindsight.
Like many of her Fijian contemporaries, Brown is mostly self-taught and straddles the multiple disciplines of fine drawing, painting and mosaic/sculpture.
In 1998, soon after the birth of her second child (a son Jacob), Brown made the move to a 16-acre copra estate in Balaga, Savusavu with her partner Peter Slatter, an artist in his own right who carves toys out of native wood.
The idyllic rural lifestyle has not been without its challenges. “At times, money would be a problem,” says Brown. “We spent the first five years getting on our feet and the next five building the house,” she says.
The barn-style house-cum-studio in question has been fashioned out of native raintrees found on the property and is sparsely decorated with Brown and friends’ artwork.
It is here that Brown makes her miniature mosaics of marine life with mother-of-pearl shell, which grew out of a collaboration with Leanne and Justin Hunter and is available for purchase from J. Hunter’s Savusavu Town showroom.
One of her larger pieces, a lionfish, won a major prize at the Fiji Arts Club National Exhibition two years ago.
The artist, who was recently elected chair of the newly formed Savusavu Arts and Crafts Society, is also creating more personal work with pottery shards and sea glass on masi. “That’s what I hope to explore more,” she says.
Brown is aware of the unconventional existence she has carved outside the mainstream, saying: “I feel guilty but somebody’s got to live the dream.”
The Alchemist
Bower, 38, also a born and bred Suva kid, started an apprenticeship with a boat building company straight out of high school.
 “That’s where I learnt all the metal work,” he says before branching out on his own. Over the years, Bower has built his reputation on artistic custom designed furniture and gates in wrought iron and copper.
His work can be found at some of Fiji’s best boutique resorts including Wakaya, Namale and Koro Sun, as well as private residences throughout the country.
Eleven years ago, awaiting a move to bigger premises, Bower moved his entire workshop into several containers and took a month off to visit his folks, who upon retirement had relocated to Savusavu.
It was here that he found out by phone that his new business partnership had fallen through and Bower ended up staying.
After years of refining and honing his skill, Bower started experimenting with metal sculptures both miniature and life size.
Like Brown, his work is inspired by nature. A two-metre tall sailfish was snapped up by an Australian and now resides on the Gold Coast.
Bower’s more portable work—miniatures of “very Fijian slices of lifes” as well as practical napkin holders and utensil hangers in the shape of fish and shells—was inspired by his mother, Karen Bower, also an artist.
His wrought iron stick figures make for humourous collectibles. One features a man carrying a bunch of bananas while another shows a marama fishing with a bucket by her side.
Yaqona, being a national pastime, is the subject of two miniatures: one where a man is offering a bilo while another is consuming one.
Bower, whose company Imagination In Metal still takes commissions for artistic gates and grills, hopes to show his sculptures abroad one day.
Both he and Brown have an earthy, easy-going demeanor, which is perfectly in sync with Savusavu’ vibe.
It’s hard to tell which came first. Whether they were like this to begin with and naturally gravitated to this place or that the area has had this effect on them.
Offers Brown: “Savusavu seems to attract the individual, the eccentric. The flotsam and jetsam.”

• Katrina Brown and Shane Bower are represented by Leanne Hunter of J. Hunter Pearls Fiji. For further information on the artists or to commission a work, Email: lhunter@pearlsfiji.com, Tel: +(679) 8850821