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 

​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

click here to see this amazing show online!

Group Art Exhibition “It’s not one thing… it’s everything” opens November 6 at Canessa Gallery

A new group exhibition inspired by – and commenting on – current times will feature paintings, sculpture and video at the historic Canessa Gallery in North Beach.  This powerful collection of recent works promises to move, challenge, delight and inspire, featuring work by artists Jon Altemus, Peter Brown, Vicki Gunter, Dana Lawton and Robert Perkins.  The collection, which ranges from allegorical to purely abstract, includes mixed media, paintings, sculpture, and a video montage.  The exhibition opens November 6 and will be available by appointment through November 27.
Location: Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery Street @ Washington, San Francisco

Make reservations at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/its-not-one-thingits-everything-tickets-124950055981
 @Itsnotonethingitseverything on Instagram 

​TRADING PLACES 
​Canary & Elephant Series




Exhibited @ Epperson Gallery
in 
WHAT LIES BENEATH

February 14 - March 15
2020

I would love to share my newest sculpture, Farewell To Spring, with you at Epperson Gallery. And I am happy to have a second piece, Humming Aquilegia, in this wonderful show.

~ CANARIES & CLIMATE DISRUPTION ~
 
It's a bitter success, this opportunity to share When Our Ship Comes In with you. 

While walking the Berkeley Marina with my love, Peter, I saw a huge white and blue block, floating in the San Francisco Bay. It triggered memories of the faces of Alaskan glaciers and their calved icebergs.

When he told me it was a car carrier ship, I 'saw' an arctic iceberg slammed up to the backend of that car carrying ship.  These weird looking ships carry 13 stories of 5,500 climate-changing vehicles.

This is a kinetic sculpture. Its ice-filled berg slowly melts, flooding the Americana scene of little red school house, corn field, white picket fence & American Gothics with apple pie & pitch fork. As the waters rise little messages in a bottle float. The cautionary, yellow, canary sits atop the American flag.

This year, floods and fires have destroyed & ended many lives. This is happening now, time is running out, no more waiting for $-our-ship-to-come-in-$. Our beautiful earth is the only ship that matters.
Melting Glaciers = Canary in the Coal Mine for Earth. 
Fossil Fuels + Corporate Profit = Elephant in the Room.

I feel an urgency to create art in this revolutionary time and value clay’s infinite potential − mirroring our own.
With love, Vicki

I invite you to explore my process as I created 
​Casa Azul - “Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly.” Frida Kahlo

​My first 37 years as an artist were as a dancer, choreographer & healer. I have worked with many people in pain. As a massage therapist, I have felt many different bodies, spines, hands, feet. Now, as a clay artist, spines sometimes subconsciously flow from my hands.
 
I visited Casa Azul in 2013 photographing its vivid blue walls & green trim. Like many of us, I love Frida’s art. I imagine she was able to sustain & be true to her self, creatively, politically & sexually because of her art.
 
When I began, Casa Azul, I looked at x-rays & photos of her broken collarbone, bolts in her spine, her studio, HER…painting a hammer & sickle on her body cast while trapped in it. I felt her true ‘house’, was her rib cage & heart.  And of course, her arms, which, when faced with amputation of her leg, took flight.

click for details: Bedford Gallery 
Links to videos and blogs about my work and the Bedford Gallery:
Casa Azul at The World of Frida from OverDressed for Life - blog
City of Walnut Creek video of World of Frida
Blog by Deborah Adeyanju about my solo show - Fall 2017
Clay & Earth
What We Stand On