The walls inside the bright sunlit room were covered in art. Textured seascape paintings with driftwood accents, bold abstract oil work, and soft subtle pastels caught the eye in different ways as each showcased a unique technique and emotion. The eclectic paintings were all the handiwork of talented local artist Dinett Hok, a relatively new Destin transplant originally from Aguadulce, Panama.
“When I was young I loved to draw,” said Hok, when asked what first inspired her artistic passion. “I took religion in elementary school and I needed to draw something for an assignment and I decided to draw Jesus Christ in pencil. When I turned it in they didn’t believe that I did it, so that was when I began thinking I must be good.”
At the young age of 17, Hok studied graphic design at the University of Panama as she sought to pursue a career in art.
“The closest thing I could take to art was graphic design. But in my courses I had to draw and learn the human figure as well as the graphic arts side,” she said.
During her university years, Hok freelanced, eventually landing a job with a company called My Name is Panama.
“Over there I would do art of daily life,” she said. “I loved to draw a lot about Panama; the buildings, the seascapes, and pretty much anything outdoors.”
Soon after college, Hok met and married her husband Michael Hok, had a son and gave up her artwork for a while to travel and be a devoted mother and wife.
“He was in the military, and we were in Panama for two years then I had my son and we moved to Utah,” Hok said. “We moved all over the U.S. so I didn’t paint for a long time because I didn’t want to miss any time with my kid.”
When her son became a teen, Hok again found time to dabble in the arts and began water color portraiture, a short-lived medium that she soon traded in for oils and acrylics.
“At the beginning I started out with oil. I jumped right into oil, to me it was easy and convenient because you can go to a baseball game and come back and it’s still wet,” said Hok. “I take a lot of time just reworking on area until I like it.”
Today, Hok’s paintings often depict Destin’s white sand beachscapes and sunsets, and with each she incorporates a piece of gnarled driftwood.
“It’s just this place,” said Hok. “When we moved here three years ago, I started getting back into it. Destin is so beautiful. I love running in the morning, and that is where all of these come out. I see these little spots on my run and I go back to them when I paint.”
As for the driftwood accents, Hok has even begun to use them in her most recent abstract paintings.
“I love driftwood and I love trees,” she said. “Depending on where you are at the tree’s shape is completely different. I love textures. I love feeling what I’m doing. I like feeling the water, feeling the sand.”
Hok explained that she often coats the driftwood in metals using silver, oxidized metal and sometimes even 24-karate gold.
“It’s three dimensional so you can see it and feel it, I always feel like I need to see it and touch it at the same time.” she said.
Currently Hok is preparing her work for two European exhibits, one in Italy and one in France.
“I enter exhibits worldwide,” she said. “When they chose my abstract one as the best 100 artists from the Palermo (Italy) I broke down. It’s just being insecure. I love my artwork and I just couldn’t believe that they were choosing my art.”
For more information on Dinett Hok, and to see her work, visit www.fineart-dinetthok.com.