Vicki Gunter
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First Artist to Exhibit with NY2CA Gallery in Benicia CA

3/8/2023

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Exciting News:
 
There is a new Gallery in Benicia!

NY2CA 
and I am the 1st artist invited to join them! 
 
You are invited too!
Grand Opening Reception

🌱 Earth Day 🌱
I will be collaborating with Greenpeace 🌱

Saturday April 22, 2023 . 3-6pm
 
🌱 Meet Co-owners Twigg and Vickie & me, the other Vicki!


show dates: April 20-June 4, 2023
Gallery hours: 
Thursday - Sunday 11-6
617 1st St, Benicia CA 94510

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​I am honored that NY2CA visited my studio and chose 16 of my ceramic sculptures for their first collaboration. 
 🧬A 
retrospective of my, eco-sociol-justice, pedestal pieces 🍃
from 2014 - present
.

The gallery walls will be exhibiting the paintings of 
 NY2CA Co-owner Twigg   
Below is one intriguing example...

Dancing Mushrooms 
30” x 24”
Acrylic on canvas 

zoom on in!

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NY2CA Gallery was opened by Twigg and Vickie with the goal of showcasing and celebrating visual artists and their unique perspectives. They aim for the gallery to become a vibrant , inclusive space celebrating the power of art to bring people together. New York 2 California!

Please be patient- NY2CA website and social media will go live on April 1, 2023

Other exciting news:
I have been elected to the board of The Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California, ACGA. In my previous life as a dancer, I went to ACGA shows and dreamed of exhibiting with them. My dream has come true more than once. Now I'm thrilled to give back.

If you are new to clay and eager to find your way, join!
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GEMS V - Three Artist Statements

12/26/2022

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GEMS V at Arts Benicia Nov/Dec '22

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 In Hot Water — Canary & Elephant Series

90% of Coral reefs, our ocean's Gardens, are in trouble due to global warming, unsustainable fishing, pollution and habitat destruction. 
Teapot Anatomy
  • The hand carved belly of the teapot represents brain coral (Diploria strigoga) and of course acidic, hot water! Coral’s white skeleton is revealed as it dies— “coral bleaching”.
  • The spout portrays our endangered California Hydrocoral
  • The handle is a fictitious coral. 

The Cups — some of the animals dependent on coral reefs:
  • The seahorse cup represents our very own Pacific seahorse, Hippocampus ingen. Populations have dropped 50-90% in past 15 years. It is also Vulnerable due to destruction of habitat, aquariums, 
  • The Banggai Cardinalfish (commonly known as angelfish) is endangered because of its popularity as a pet in home aquariums.
  • Sea Stars (Pisaster ochraceus) on our west coast from Alaska to Mexico were dying in massive numbers from wasting syndrome in 2014 when I made this piece.  The disease is still present, but Sea Star numbers have increased some.
  • Some good news: The fish cup, with the fan shaped tail, represents the Goby fish. When coral is stressed by overgrowth of algae or seaweed, it emits a chemical that the Goby fish is attracted to — it will come chew away the invading algae & seaweed! 
  • And of course, homosapiens (people). Tea anyone? Drink for change!
                                                                     . . . . . ​
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 Folktales 2020

Year 2020! Our native flora and fauna: Yellow-legged frog, Fiddleneck, Mariposa Lily, coral and butterfly are All half white and fading, indicating threat of extinction. Note I have taken liberty with the butterfly’s spots…BLM. COVID + $sign against THE mask. And as a sort of voodoo wish— Donald Trump’s orange hair is smoldering off to one side. So, that worked in 2020!! Hee, hee.
I see everything in this Folktale as one and the same interconnected and complex problem. Mainly, a world economic system governed— not by the needs of all living things— but by a lack of true democracy, in a capitalist system legally requiring continuous extraction and expansion for greatest profit no matter the cost. Which means waste, designed obsolescence, more corporate profits, wars, more buying, more waste. And IF it continues, it means more hunger, homelessness, slave labor and a degraded uninhabitable environment. 
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 Edge Effect

We are living-searching-grieving on the edge. The Edge Effect in nature is about the boundaries between two habitats and how they affect biodiversity. Corporate powers have created unjust, unnatural boundaries between societies and nature. This is an improvised mash-up of my subconscious floating on edge.
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WOMEN ARTISTS MAKING THEIR MARK 2022 – O’HANLON ONLINE GALLERY SHOW

8/15/2022

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Trading Places? Canary & Elephant Series clay, mixed media 
15.5 x 10 5.5 
©️Vicki Gunter ​
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Soft Hands interpreting J. Ngo's poem of the same name . clay, mixed media
 23.5 x 9.5 x 6 
©️Vicki Gunter 
juried by DONNA SEAGER &
SUZANNE GRAY

August 15 – November 6, 2022
Artist Roundtable Discussion on Zoom
with Dr. Peller Marion:
Tuesday, August 16, 4 p.m.

SEE ZOOM INVITE BELOW
POETRY: SUZ LIPMAN

Continuing our 15th annual show devoted to women artists, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts
is committed to amplifying the creative vision of today’s women artists across the globe
and helping to bring more gender equity to the world of art.


​Women Artists Making Their Mark 2022
 is dedicated to living working artists known
and yet to be discovered: women artists making their mark and changing the
​landscape of contemporary art. 


Sponsored by Margery Kreitman, in honor of 3 Girls Theatre
3GirlsTheatre Company develops, promotes and presents new plays by women playwrights.
Zoom-link  https://www.ohanloncenter.org/2022/08/women_artists_2022/ 

Link to entire show:
Download Program with Artist Statements (PDF)
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June 11th, 2022

6/11/2022

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Temporary link to Vicki's email Announcement
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March 28th, 2022

3/28/2022

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Vicki's personal Shimmer email
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Composing the Future ll - Meet the Artists!

1/2/2022

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Thursday, January 6th 2022, 7-8pm
click ​zoom → link ←
Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art

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1. Why Skulls, Roses and 2. Family Galtherings?

11/4/2021

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The story behind "Baby Names 1955-2020 - New Era Series"

💀 "Skulls and Roses" Closing Reception and Art Walk
Friday November 12, 5–8pm 

artworksdowntown

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Vicki Gunter . "Baby Names 1955-2020" Ceramic, 21 x 28 x 6

When I've shared this piece with others I was surprised to discover how many people didn't know any of the  names I carefully pressed into the clay one letter at a time.  I've been asked to explain. It is painful. Yet, I am grateful  for this moment to share the story of  why  I created "Baby Names 1955-2020 - New Era Series".When shelter-in-place began I was motivated to take advantage of previously desired, now abundant, time. I completed three clay sculptures from March-May. That’s a lot! I felt tethered to our small, sheltered world and grieved those dying from COVID-19. When George Floyd was murdered, I was completely untethered, emotionally and creatively. I couldn’t continue on the same path. I wanted to hit the streets in protest, but having reached age 70, COVID-19 held me back. I mused... and woke one morning with a full vision of a new piece, memorializing victims, my grief,  inspirations from BLM, and my previous work. 
I researched lists on different sites: Black Lives Matter, press, wikipedia, universities, etc. I was moved when I found  the home page of  the Baby Names website had posted an extensive list of people unjustly murdered. All somebody’s baby. 
The 44 names on the piece begin with Emmett Till whose 1955 murder sparked the civil rights movement. Each of these people are victims of unnecessary, often intentional police killings or white supremacist violence. They are all people of color, across the spectrum of age, gender and sexual orientation. Some struggled with mental health others were simply going about their daily lives. The 44th victim is George Floyd. My palette is primarily white because I was moved by the statement his family made by wearing white to his funeral saying, “This is NOT an end, but a New Era."
I chose the yellow of the cautionary canary, still alerting us. DNA is inscribed on the blooming rose, telling the story that this genetic code of molecules is evidence of the shared ancestry of all living things. 
Tragically, many more black and brown lives have been taken. Yes, white people have also been unjustly murdered by police but black and brown people are disproportionally targeted. Historically we have been and are systematically divided by race. None of us are free until we are all free. 
I have linked each person’s name to articles and sites that detail the end of their lives. You, of course, may choose not to click on these links.

I hope you will at least be moved to honor them by Saying Their Names…

Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Ahmaud Arbery, Stephon Clark, Aiyana Jones, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Clifford Glover, Sandra Bland, Bettie Jones, Walter Scott, Rekia Boyd, Claude Reese, Randy Evans, John Crawford, Meagan Hockaday, Alton Sterling, Jordan Edwards, Tony McDade, Pamela Turner

Oscar Grant, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Andy Lopez, Randy Lopez, Randy Evans, Amadou Diallo, Keith Scott, Jordan Davis, Corey Jones, Freddie Gray, Nina Popp, Ezell Ford, India Kager, Mary Truxillo, Janet Wilson, Eric Reason, Alteria Woods, Renisha McBride, Willam Green, Timothy Thomas, Mya Hall, George Floyd 
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Vicki Gunter . "Family Gathering - Little Pete Meadow"  2 x 6.5 x 4.5 inches
currently showing in

Yosemite Renaissance 36 at Madera  Arts Council
November 11 - January 14, 2022
​At the magical age of nine (1959), my father & mother put an old wooden pack frame on my back, hung a Sierra Club Cup on my rope belt and we “hit the trail”. I discovered the earth could sustain me as it is and I could survive in it with little more than a spoon, a cup, dried apples, jerky and the body warmth of family. And wow, it was hard work, but so worth it, not only because of the extraordinary beauty — we were experiencing our life source. 
When we reached Little Pete Meadow in the high sierras, we were gifted with Huckleberries~ one of our simple native delights that stirs us to defend what we stand on…! We mixed them with Bisquick making one giant blueberry biscuit over our campfire. My father actually carried a small cast-iron skillet for this purpose. Yes, crazy.
This “cup” and its huckleberries are made entirely of ceramic, simulating granite. The blueberry stems and handle are hand-worked wire. The plinth is an actual granite stone.
. . .
This is a time of year for family gatherings.  To create new and continue old traditions together. I am not thankful for the traditional lies of Thanksgiving, hiding the genocide of the native people of this land, in order to claim it as the United States of America. 
I am thankful for the gathering of family to cook together, to eat together, to remember together. To love, laugh, dance and play music. And, yes, even to argue together! 
It can be a healing time.
I wish you and yours love and joy on your paths,

Vicki
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Women Artists Making Their Mark

8/15/2021

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click here to see this amazing show online!
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juried by DONNA SEAGER & SUZANNE GRAY
August 10 – October 1, 2021
Artist Roundtable Discussion on Zoom
with Dr. Peller Marion:
Tuesday, August 10, 4 p.m.

POETRY: SUZ LIPMAnContinuing our 14th annual show devoted to women artists, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts is committed to amplifying the creative vision of today’s women artists across the globe and helping to bring more gender equity to the world of art.
Women Artists Making Their Mark 2021 is dedicated to living working artists know and yet to be discovered: women artists making their mark and changing the landscape of contemporary art. 
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POSIES: A POCKETFUL

8/15/2021

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Menagerie

8/15/2021

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