Vicki Gunter
Oakland, California

Email
wavetovicki@vickigunter.com

Artist Statement
As a native of California, the clay state, I love turning clay to stone. I feel an urgency to create art in this revolutionary time and value clay’s infinite potential—mirroring our own.

Studio Description
I am fortunate to have a small studio in the basement of my home in East Oakland. It has two upcycled windows that look out onto my garden. I have a Skutt KM 1027 kiln. A wedging and work table I made myself. A wheel my husband made!

What type of clay do you use?
Mostly paper clay. Also porcelain and old donated dried bags of clay I recycle.

What temperature do you fire to?
cone 1–6 and occasionally cone 018

What is your primary forming method?
Handbuilding with slabs, coils, solid, pinching, and occasionally throwing.

What is your favorite surface treatment?
Underglazes and stains finished with beeswax and glaze highlights

Do you make any of your own tools?
I use whatever I can get my hands on that does what I want. Some are purchased. Others I find in nature, hardware tool boxes, kitchen utensils. Resourceful tool inventions like bending an old putty knife in a vice.

What is your favorite thing about your studio?
It's my very own quiet, cool, contemplative space.

What is the one thing in your studio you can’t live without?
My beloved kiln!

What are your top three studio wishes?
More SPACE! Admin. Assistant. More SPACE!

What’s on your current reading list?
Where the Crawdads Sing. Know My Name. Nine Perfect Strangers. Flight Behavior. The New Jim Crow.

How do you save money on materials and supplies?
I reuse underglaze that has dried up or settled to the bottom of my rinse water. Recycle clay.

How do you recharge creatively?
I hike biweekly in the hills and by the sea in the Bay Area and in the Sierras when I can. I take dance and yoga classes (on zoom during COVID). I garden.

Do you have any DIY tips for studio efficiency?
Dump all tiny clay crumbs as you work into a plastic container that becomes your slip. Bigger bits into clay bag. Reorganize before each new project!

What challenges have you given yourself to overcome?
Switching from a dance profession to my first ceramic submission at the age of 6o without art school. Staying true to what's important to me to create

What did your first piece look like?
A ceramic hiking boot in high school. The tread didn't stay attached.

What ceramic superpower would you have and why?
To wave a wand that instantly cleans the floor and every work surface!

Who is your ceramic art mentor and why?
L. Henderson, M. Gregor, and Collier, L. Reinertson, C. Bailey. They are all authentic, kind, liberating.

What is your studio playlist?
Infinite variety plus audiobooks and podcasts

Why do you create art?
It's what I have always done. It's what I love. It's the way I can process what's important to me and hopefully speaks to others.

What is your best studio tip?
Keep records. A folder for each sculpture with its measurements, process, sketches, patterns, firing temps and glazes. Comes in handy! It can be messy!

If you could change one property of clay, what would it be?
Absolutely nothing. I love clay! Well, I suppose I wish it wasn't so fragile for shipping!