There are those who devote their lives to studying art and others who are just born to be artists. Ceramist Ken Kang is of the latter group.

"When I was maybe about 4 or 5, I had a hammer and chisel, and on the side of the house there was this rock and I carved a face," said the artist.

Kang, 76, is well known in the art community, having participated in a variety of art shows over the past 40 years. Yet he remains humble and unassuming, with a gentle sense of humor.

Kang’s body of work is extensive. His ceramics range from Japa­nese tea implements to boxes that also show off his woodcrafting skills via lacquer-style covers. Kang is now focused on vessels and free-form objects that bear a rough, irregular look, using a gas kiln to fuse the wood ash he sprays onto his pottery, a process he started employing 13 years ago.

A variety of his art is on view in "Random Expressions," an exhibit at the Louis Pohl Gallery. The show continues through April 15.

Kang grew up in Hawaii, the middle child of an electrical-engineer father and schoolteacher mother. His parents didn’t feel art was a necessity in their Punchbowl home.

"My dad was education," Kang said. "You know, from the old country — you gotta go school."

Kang enrolled at the University of Hawaii to satisfy his dad but left after one year. He turned instead to auto painting and continued in the profession until retiring 16 years ago.

Except for a painting class in intermediate school, it wasn’t until 1975 that Kang began to follow his inner calling.

During that year, Kang "had too much time on my hands" and sought an art class at the Hono­­lulu Academy of Arts, now known as the Hono­­lulu Museum of Art.

"It was between painting and ceramics," Kang said.

He decided on ceramics, which was being taught by well-known artist May Chee.

"She was really good," said Kang, who owns one of Chee’s pieces, a large vessel. He displays the prized possession next to his flat-screen TV in the living room of his Alewa Heights home.

"She must have been about my age now when she was making huge (pieces). … It’s hand-built."

Chee’s vessel is just one of many ceramic pieces adorning the living room of the home Kang shares with his wife, Naomi. Items they’ve collected from their travels are carefully arranged on floor-to-ceiling shelves, as well as works given to Kang by fellow artists. Kang’s handmade pieces enhance other areas of the room, including his Best-in-Show piece from a Hono­lulu Japa­nese Chamber of Commerce exhibit in 2013.

But it is his outdoor workspace that is Kang’s haven. There he produces pottery from a kiln he built himself. If not doing that, he’s teaching ceramics to a neighbor or furthering his woodwork. He will teach a class on building a raku kiln in April at the Hono­lulu Museum of Art School (go to bit.ly/1KpkpIs).

"I have no plans about stopping," Kang said. "I picture the rest of my life with clay in my hands."