Honolulu Weekly

Spiral Gallery Café / As a child, Cassandra Rockwood-Rice fell in love with art when her uncle, who was an artist, taught her how to draw a “floating waterfall.” You draw two patches of grass, then connect them, explains Rockwood-Rice. When her uncle died, Rockwood-Rice says, something grew in her.

“He had a light in him,” she says. “Artists often have a spark of knowing something. They are able to see something outside the box.”

Rockwood-Rice, 31, brought her out-of-the-box vision to Waimanalo with Spiral Gallery Café, which opened in December. One part espresso bar and one part artist co-op, Spiral percolates espresso along with a sense of community bounded together by creativity and art, all in the heart of Waimanalo.

Spiral Gallery Café brews locally grown coffee and makes vegetarian dishes from mostly local ingredients. The gallery consists of a co-op and a consignment section. Artists who are a part of Spiral’s co-op are given wall space and advertising through [www.SpiralGalleryCafe.com] in exchange for 10 percent of their sales. Artists are also required to donate 5 percent of their sales to a local charity and commit to 10 hours of volunteering in the community.

“I think the community will like the space and Cassandra’s idea of community involvement,” says Connie Southwell, a Spiral co-op member and the artist behind Kani Kai Designs.

A major aspect of Rockwell-Rice’s business model is community.

A Massachusetts native who came to the islands via Alaska, Rockwood-Rice says she was attracted to Hawaii for its innate healing quality. Since first moving to Waimanalo eight years ago, she knew it would be the place that she and her daughter, Odessa, would call home.

“It’s a tight-knit community,” says Rockwood-Rice. “Everyone is an auntie or uncle.”

Waimanalo’s community beckoned her to launch her creative business model, which she developed after completing projects involving communal art partnerships in Alaska, Australia, England and Germany.

Rockwood-Rice says her gallery café wouldn’t have opened without the generosity and openness of her fellow community members.

From co-op member Ilihia donating a printer and coffee mugs, to Jon Foley–owner of Con-Creations located in Enchanted Lake–contributing a customized counter-top, Spiral Gallery Café is like a child raised by a tribe. Maybe it has to do with Rockwood-Rice’s belief in art’s role in a community.

“Aesthetically pleasing communication,” she says, “opens up chance to feel hope.”