Art at Terminal One
Cab Driver by Day, Sculptor by Night
Photos and Interview by Charisse Domingo

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This is an interview with wood sculptor Peter Kubina, born in Germany in 1940 and came to the United States in 1967.   I first met Peter as I began my journey to create a photo essay on the working conditions facing San Jose airport taxi cab drivers.   Many people I talked to asked me, “Did you take the picture of Peter's art?   He did that here in the airport while driving cabs.”  

When I met Peter, I was humbled by his presence.   He was quick to give props to the other taxi drivers whose experiences contributed to his latest piece of work, which he believes captures the imagination of the more than 50 taxi drivers he works with at the San Jose Airport Terminal A.   This is his interview.  

What kind of art do you do?

I have no name for it.   Someone once asked me what my favorite work is, and I said, “It is the one I haven't done yet.”   Every time the artwork is new.   I explore an unknown object.   What kind of art should an artist produce – while being aware of past centuries beyond imagination – man-made disasters like genocides, nuclear explosion, environmental destruction, mental manipulation, etc.   connected with the awesome feeling that more of these will come, experience personally or seen on tv with thumbs up or down like in a Roman empire circus?   Should the artist produce universal abstractions or copy masterworks or pretend to know how nature looks like?   The answer: There will always be a child experimenting with color pens' effects on a wall or piece of paper.  

What made you choose the type of art you do?

As a child, when I was 8, I didn't paint like a child.   I copied from nature books, mostly birds.   And when I decided to become an artist, I was over 20 years old at the time.   When I decided, I decide to become an artist for the rest of my life.   I decided not to lean on what has been done before.   I discovered the subconscious from where artists draw inspiration.   It is like a deep ocean, where many spaces have not been seen or discovered before.   So I'm more or less fishing for the unknown spaces, if I dive deep enough.

I remember when I decided to become an artist.   I wanted to do something that would last until I was old and dead.   It wasn't a moment.   It was a calculation to avoid boredom in my life.  

It was kind of the same way when I decided to become a taxi driver.   I have always been self-employed.   Ten years ago, I came to a point where I decided, hey, I'll do something that I've never done before.   So I chose taxi driving.   As a taxi driver, I learned more than any other job before.   I learned how to overcome my fear of strangers and unexpected situations and how to cope with those.

I have also had the gift to meet Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore who personally taught me.  

Do you find any relationship between your work as a taxi driver and your artwork?

Yes!   I became more free as an artist when I began taxi driving. I am more free in my expression.   As a taxi driver, I got to know different levels and spectrums of American society through meeting with drivers and customers from all over the world.   The last two sculptures were finished at the San Jose airport in the middle of 50 taxi drivers parked there at that location.   These drivers are from all over the world, Africa and Asia especially.   The drivers' openness towards my art and their positive attitudes astonished me.   Some of the drivers came from a village whose utensils like forks and spoons were made out of wood.   They had a very intimate feeling for the materials I was working with.   They would ask me for the meaning of the sculptures with enormous interest.

What inspires you?

That's complicated.   Making art, in my case, is kind of an obsession.   Making the art is the most important part – not the beginning or the finishing.   It is like being in paradise.   This is what only artists of any kind understand.   The source of making art is mostly spiritual and has always been spiritual since the beginning of art production.  

Also view another photospread:

"Scaring the Crap Out of the Company"
By Charisse Domingo