The Hawaiʻi born artist Tanja Browne gives old surfboards new life by creating elaborate tile mosaics with designs that include tropical seabirds, skulls and mountain ranges.
On Thursday, Oct. 23, Browne and another mosaic artist, Leah Kilpatrick Rigg, will have their art on display starting at 6 p.m. for the opening night of the Loʻi Gallery on the first floor of American Savings Bank’s Campus Branch. There will be complimentary food, drinks and live music. The gallery’s nonprofit partner Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi, will receive 20 percent of each sale. Mahea Leah will be the event's featured merchant.
Tanja Browne transforms used surfboards into artwork, which helps them avoid the landfill and gives them new life as art. (Courtesy of Tanja Browne) 
This surfboard design features 'iwa birds. (Courtesy of Tanja Browne) 
Tanja Browne created this work of art as a commissioned Christmas present, according to her Instagram. (Courtesy of Tanja Browne) 
Other designs, like this one, feature skulls. (Courtesy of Tanja Browne) 
This mosaic is a collaboration by Tanja Browne and Leah Kilpatrick Rigg, the current featured artists for the Lo'i Gallery. (Courtesy of Tanja Browne)
Browne “haphazardly started” working with tile about 20 years ago, she told Aloha State Daily.
“I don't know why I chose tile,” she said. “Living on an island, it's hard to get it here. It's expensive. It's hard to handle. It's heavy. I could have been painting.”
She laughs.
“Something about the medium just really pulled me in,” Browne added. “It was something about breaking it down and reconstituting it into something that — once you step away — you see something that becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”
Browne started making tile into art when she was a stay-at-home mom “and I probably needed to crack things up,” she said with a big laugh. Three years ago, she decided to pursue her art more seriously. She took a risk and did a design on a surfboard.
“Because I was born and raised in Hawaiʻi, you're always conscious of the landfill, the landfill, the landfill,” Browne said. “And how much water you're using. And just really trying to be sustainable about things. And so there are all these retired surfboards everyone has from 20 years ago, living under their house, and they can't get rid of them. The minute they find out that someone's going to turn it into art, they're like, ʻPlease take it!’ ”
The boards come to her with so much mana, she said.
“I mean the energy of the shaper, and then the rider and the waves that they've been in, and the memories,” she said.
Browne does not surf, but she did design the trophies for the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach in 2023 and 2024. Browne did not do designs this year since the competition was taken off the World Surfing League’s championship tour in 2025.
Employees at Daltile have started saving samples and surplus overruns for her that would normally be thrown away, Browne said.
“Really, despite being made of earth, tile — because of the glazes — it actually takes a really long time to break down,” she added. “It's not a great thing to go into the construction and demolition pit with all the other stuff. So they were happy to give it to me.”
Browne stores the samples in her garage and challenges herself to use them in projects, she said.
“I will bring in tile,” Browne said. “But as a rule, I do try to use what's on island first. It’s kind of a nice challenge to see how can I take this white boring tile and make it interesting?”
She did her first surfboard project for the Friends of Sunset Beach’s annual art auction, Celebrating the Arts. A friend gave her a board and it “came together like magic,” Browne said. As she walked into the event, people were turning their heads and wanting to touch it, she said. The piece never made it to auction, selling for double the “buy now” price, instead.
Browne’s completed mosaic surfboards usually weigh 30 pounds or less, including packing materials used to keep the work safe when she transports it to neighbor islands or the mainland.
At the moment, comissions cost between $3,400 and $12,000, she said. To request work, reach out via Instagram. To learn more about Rigg, the other featured artist in the Loʻi Gallery who has created large-scale works for Target, Punahou School and the Honolulu Zoo, among other spots, go to her website.
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DETAILS
Who: Artists Tanja Browne and Leah Kilpatrick Rigg
What: Loʻi Gallery
Where: American Savings Bank’s Campus Branch (300 N. Beretania St., Honolulu, HI 96817)
When: 6 - 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
