It never occurred to Harry Tsuchidana to be anything but an artist, and for more than 50 years, his dedication hasn't failed him.

At 76, Tsuchidana has been honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce's 30th annual "Commitment to Excellence" exhibition.

As the honoree, Tsuchidana has five pieces on display alongside the work of some of Hawai'i's leading artists. Of about 500 submissions, the jurors selected only 81 pieces.

A Waipahu native, Tsuchidana was in the Marine Corps from 1952 to 1955, and fought in the Korean War. When he left the service, he went back to studying art — at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Brooklyn School of Art; and Pratt Contemporaries Graphic Arts Center in New York City.

Tsuchidana said he still draws every morning while he drinks coffee and listens to the radio, but he primarily is a painter who has worked on thousands of abstract pieces — and rarely calls them finished because he often goes back to edit them.

Abstract art appeals to him because it allows him to study angles and color relationships. This year, he's worked with variations of gray — and it also offers more opportunity to express himself. He compares it to how someone might like checkers until he learns how to play chess and realizes the strategic limitations of checkers.

Tsuchidana is also a teacher. He has taught 10 years at the Academy Art Center at Linekona — which is hosting the exhibition — and another 10 years at the state Department of Education's adult education program in Kaimuki.

Paintings on display in this exhibit include "The Stage" and two that take the viewer "Back Stage."

"Symbolically thinking, we live life in a stage," he said, pointing out that the perspective varies whether you look forward, to the left or to the right. By contrast, he also wanted to look backstage, so the other paintings "go behind the scene of a print."