• Keoni's carving technique transforms wood into the illusion of woven fibre
• Retirement carried him unexpectedly from Silicon Valley to art
• Self-taught, he experiments freely without pressure or penalty

Keoni’s hard maple vessels create the visual impression of woven fibre with beadwork-like intricacy. His practice is grounded in the study of Native cultures and informed by archives and conversations with community storytellers. “Knowledge was not necessarily transmitted in writing. It was oral, and it was tactile,” he says. Keoni follows those histories through basketry, pottery, textiles and rugs. He distills the iconography of these crafts into a language of his own, built from geometry, carving, fire and colour. His patterns unfold mathematically across a 72-polar grid decorated with inks and dyes. Through woodburning, Keoni caramelises the maple’s sugars into layers of brown that heighten the illusion of basket weaving and vintage character. "My pieces are meant to be held. Touch is the way into the vessels' world," he says. “People who acquire a piece of mine become participants in its journey and part of its story.”