The CANARIES & ELEPHANTS series references the sayings: The-Canary-In-The-Coal-Mine and The-Elephant-In-The-Room. The yellow Canary is a cautionary alert of environmental & social justice issues for us and our planet.
The challenge— the choices we need to make to remove the fossil-fueled, profit-driven Elephants from the Room.
GLOBAL WARNING - CANARIES & ELEPHANTS 1- In the 50's, backpacking in the high sierras, I got separated from my parents and I thought, hopelessly lost, because of stopping to delight in the thousands of Mountain Yellow-Legged frogs. 95% of those frogs have disappeared. Amphibians are dying in massive numbers all over the world. Because of their permeable skin, they require life sustaining water and land. Therefore they, like the canary, warned us first of threats: Chytrid fungus, pesticides, loss of habitat, invasive species and frog legs for dinner! And, of course, the pollution of coal itself - one BIG elephant.
GLOBAL WARNING depicts three endangered California amphibians: The Mountain Yellow-Legged frog, the Red-Legged frog and the Tiger Salamander. The coal miner and his beloved canary are drawn from a photo of the last canary to be taken into a coal mine in 1987. Amphibians have lived on earth long before us, before the dinosaurs. If they are now struggling to survive, perhaps we're next?
I believe in nature, its beauty, interconnections and inspiration. I believe it can be a guide by its responses to our actions.
I love working with clay as a base material from the earth, pushing its limits and revealing its innate qualities. I sculpt to explore craft meeting art in an attempt to honestly reveal and inspire discussion of the personal and social issues of people living in the natural world— The challenges and simple pleasures.
I am a native Californian and feel a strong kinship with her plants, animals and geology, both in wild places and where I've lived since 1971 in East Oakland. I believe in the power of art, democracy and people’s basic need to cooperate. I do not believe that Profit (a BIG ELEPHANT) over life is a guide that brings us in balance with nature.
Our bodies, the earth and all life on it are primarily composed of water and “clay”. Clay has a memory. It records your fingerprints and all the ways you held it in your hands. Our earth has a memory and responds to our manipulations. My work in clay draws from the knowledge that everything…food, home, clothes, tools, toys all come from the ‘clay’ of the earth and the hope that we will remember to grow, gather & consume leaving the smallest fingerprint.
The challenge— the choices we need to make to remove the fossil-fueled, profit-driven Elephants from the Room.
GLOBAL WARNING - CANARIES & ELEPHANTS 1- In the 50's, backpacking in the high sierras, I got separated from my parents and I thought, hopelessly lost, because of stopping to delight in the thousands of Mountain Yellow-Legged frogs. 95% of those frogs have disappeared. Amphibians are dying in massive numbers all over the world. Because of their permeable skin, they require life sustaining water and land. Therefore they, like the canary, warned us first of threats: Chytrid fungus, pesticides, loss of habitat, invasive species and frog legs for dinner! And, of course, the pollution of coal itself - one BIG elephant.
GLOBAL WARNING depicts three endangered California amphibians: The Mountain Yellow-Legged frog, the Red-Legged frog and the Tiger Salamander. The coal miner and his beloved canary are drawn from a photo of the last canary to be taken into a coal mine in 1987. Amphibians have lived on earth long before us, before the dinosaurs. If they are now struggling to survive, perhaps we're next?
I believe in nature, its beauty, interconnections and inspiration. I believe it can be a guide by its responses to our actions.
I love working with clay as a base material from the earth, pushing its limits and revealing its innate qualities. I sculpt to explore craft meeting art in an attempt to honestly reveal and inspire discussion of the personal and social issues of people living in the natural world— The challenges and simple pleasures.
I am a native Californian and feel a strong kinship with her plants, animals and geology, both in wild places and where I've lived since 1971 in East Oakland. I believe in the power of art, democracy and people’s basic need to cooperate. I do not believe that Profit (a BIG ELEPHANT) over life is a guide that brings us in balance with nature.
Our bodies, the earth and all life on it are primarily composed of water and “clay”. Clay has a memory. It records your fingerprints and all the ways you held it in your hands. Our earth has a memory and responds to our manipulations. My work in clay draws from the knowledge that everything…food, home, clothes, tools, toys all come from the ‘clay’ of the earth and the hope that we will remember to grow, gather & consume leaving the smallest fingerprint.
© Vicki Gunter