Vicki Gunter
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New Era Series
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 Baby Names 1955-2020

When shelter in place began, March 2020, I was motivated to take advantage of previously desired, and newly abundant, time. I completed 3 clay sculptures from March-May. For me that’s a lot! Then I began grieving.

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, 'Baby Names-1955-2020,' incorporating my previous paths and Black Lives Matter. I found it critical for me as a white artist and mother to speak these names, vote for change, create art that is Shaken not stirred. 

The 44 names on this piece, begin with Emmett Till whose 1955 murder sparked the civil rights movement.
The list It ends with George Floyd. 
I chose white as my primary palette because George Floyd’s family wore white to his funeral saying this was
​"NOT an end, but a new era!"
DNA is inscribed on two petals of the blooming rose. The canary alerts us.

Clay is slow, fragile, then stone. Change is slow, fragile then inevitable.
I feel an urgency to creat art in these precarious, revolutionary times.
These people were all somebody's baby.
Say their names.

BABY NAMES 1955-2020 paper clay, underglaze, stains, glaze -- 20 X 27 X 5.5 inches
Detail side view of Baby Names 1955-2020 Rose
Say their names. This is only 44 names of the many black lives that matter.
Folktale 2020

 Our American folktale in 2020: Covid-19, fire, fire, climate crisis, floods, trump, Black Lives Matter, $$$, endangered: coral, frogs, flowers, butterflies, us masked. It's all in there. Created for the invitational show, It's Not One Thing... It's Everything. Canessa Gallery San Francisco California, November 2020.

FOLKTALE 2020 clay, nichrome wire, Underglaze -- 6.5 X 9 X 10 – 2020
Folktale 2020 - New Era Series