"A two-person exhibition" of the work of one artist?

The subtitle might be confusing but what's clear is that Kenneth Bushnell has a sense of humor. After spending more than 50 years in the art and academic world, it's refreshing to note he doesn't take himself too seriously.

"Point-Counterpoint" is a collection of works in which Bushnell exposes his androgyny (hence the "two-person exhibit") in a colorful feminine and masculine visual conversation. The gallery is divided into two separate bodies of work; the recent, linear, geometric abstract screen-prints, from his ongoing Euclidean Dream Series, on the right, and his large botanical floral stone lithograph series from the 1980s on the left. Apart from the framed works on the walls, including two recent original paintings — one floral, one abstract — there are also numerous unframed prints in the gallery's file drawers.

Bushnell was born in Los Angeles in 1933. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California-Los Angeles and his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, where he also taught art from 1961 until 1999.

As a multidisciplinary, award-winning artist, Bushnell has exhibited in roughly 200 solo and group art shows locally and internationally, and has also collaborated on environmental installations, designed costumes for dance performances and scenic theater sets, been involved in film and video projects, sculpted, designed furniture and has had his art published for the New York Botanical Gardens, New York Horticultural Society and the Honolulu Opera Theater.

His work can be found in numerous public and corporate collections in Hawai'i, on the Mainland and in Europe.

Q. Have you been drawing since you were a child?

A. I started drawing toward the end of high school and in college. There are no artists in my family. I sort of backed into art education. I was taking courses in theater and designing theater sets and taking art courses to fortify my needs. In my early college days, I made my living doing theater sets for high school productions. I dropped the theater, started making art and taught drawing for 40 years.

Q. Your notes on the exhibit mention that master printers did the prints. Is there a reason you didn't print them yourself?

A. The tradition in Europe has always been different from the (United States), where the thinking is more romantic about printing. Here, we think you are not making the print until you run it through the press yourself. In Europe, they don't feel that way. Having worked there, I don't feel that way either. A master printer spends his life honing skills I don't have. His skills deal with the printmaking process. I am in a position of strength as the artist. I used to print my own work up until the 1970s. Then, I met Luc Valdelievre in Paris, and followed him down to the south of France when he moved. Luc is now deceased, the large-format floral series ended.

Q. What attracts you to abstracts?

A. I began with an interest in abstract painting — the post-Cubists, Constructivism and Italian Futurism. I was attracted to the particular way of thinking about abstraction that grew out of configuration. The Euclidean Dream Series deals with the visual perception of perspective. (Euclid, 300 B.C., an Egyptian mathematician and the father of geometry, developed the concept of linear perspective.)

Q. You said you only spend part of the year in Hawai'i. Where else do you spend your time?

A. I divide my year into thirds. I have a home and studio in the south of France. I moved there to work with Luc. After he died, I went to work with master printer Antonio Gonzales in Viladamat, Spain. He has accommodations for artists. We did the abstract series together in very small editions with different variations of color in several versions of each work. It's still a surprise when you see the first print pulled and all the relationships from left to right inverted. I speak passable French. My Spanish is awful and the printer has no English. So, we get along with busted French. He is extremely patient with me and great to work with.

Q. With all your experience, why do you think it is important to teach art to young people today?

A. It teaches them how to think visually. Vision has its own language and syntax. If you deprive children of that experience, an area of development diminishes.

Q. Do you have any suggestions for artists interested in making a professional career in the art field today?

A. You have to make art out of some need beyond the economy. It's got a very low insurance rate for making a living. However, there are many ancillary things you can do around art making — sell art, make materials, work in a museum or teach at UH!

Q. Has it been a good art life so far?

A. I wouldn't have done anything differently. It's an interesting life and it amuses me.

Victoria Gail-White has been writing about art for The Advertiser since 2001. She is a fiber artist, teacher and former art gallery owner.