The Canaries & Elephants series reference the sayings: The-Canary-In-The-Coal-Mine (historic yellow cautionary symbol)
and The-Elephant(s)-In-The-Room. Each piece is an alert regarding different environmental/social issues
which are the-NEXT-Canaries... and the choices we have to make, to remove the elephants from the room.
SKY BLUES represents the interdependence of all life, on the air we breathe, and a few of the endangered ‘beasts’ that live
in the California skies: the Bay Checkerspot, Smith Blue and Monarch butterfly (with bejeweled chrysalis), and the California Condor (skull). Condors are now threatened by lead poisoning from bullets left behind in game.
The cautionary yellow Canary alerts us about the burning-fossil-fuel-elephant and the possibility that we may be the next ‘canaries’ if we don’t make revolutionary changes.
Yes, we are talking about a complicated puzzle.
This piece is a ceramic puzzle. Each piece is held onto a plasma cut steel plate backing by magnets.
I believe in nature, its beauty, interconnections and inspiration. I believe it can be a guide by its responses to our actions.
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.
and The-Elephant(s)-In-The-Room. Each piece is an alert regarding different environmental/social issues
which are the-NEXT-Canaries... and the choices we have to make, to remove the elephants from the room.
SKY BLUES represents the interdependence of all life, on the air we breathe, and a few of the endangered ‘beasts’ that live
in the California skies: the Bay Checkerspot, Smith Blue and Monarch butterfly (with bejeweled chrysalis), and the California Condor (skull). Condors are now threatened by lead poisoning from bullets left behind in game.
The cautionary yellow Canary alerts us about the burning-fossil-fuel-elephant and the possibility that we may be the next ‘canaries’ if we don’t make revolutionary changes.
Yes, we are talking about a complicated puzzle.
This piece is a ceramic puzzle. Each piece is held onto a plasma cut steel plate backing by magnets.
I believe in nature, its beauty, interconnections and inspiration. I believe it can be a guide by its responses to our actions.
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 2002-2016