Artist Talk: Ray Gonzales

Vianne De Santiago, February 29th 2024

On February 21st, 2024, Ray Gonzales spoke on behalf of Kinsely Art at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. His talk illustrated his career in ceramics, and being an active art member of Lincoln, California. 

As of now, Ray works at Sierra Community College on the Rocklin Campus. I had gone to Sierra College during my first two years of college, so I often saw Ray in the ceramic studio. The warmth and brightness he brought to his talk was the same energy I remember interacting with him at Sierra. Ray at heart is an educator, he had taught me how to use the wheel of ceramics even though I was not his student, I was Jodi Connelly's. 

While Ray has a love for teaching, he also expressed his love for creating art for his community. He was a part of the founders of the Lincoln Art Center and organized a ceramic exhibition that ran for 24 years in Lincoln Feats of Clay, he created this exhibit as there wasn't one around him like it, so he gave a platform for other ceramic artists to display their works and create a community.

He showed the public ceramic works he has created for Lincoln, most involving works for parks and schools. Some of the artworks he included to discuss in his talk were, From Many One/E Pluribus Unum, Here is What We Do Inside, and multiple large-scale terracotta sculpted cylinders (not pictured).

From Many One/E Pluribus Unum, was a work he had done for a school in Lincoln. The artwork is located at 1st and Joiner, Lincoln, CA. For this work, he discussed how he wanted to involve the students who were attending at the time. His execution for this was by imprinting the thumbs of each student and adding these initials inside their thumbprint. I was drawn to this piece as he later expressed how when he goes to see this piece, he will catch the adults bringing their children to this work to show them their thumbprints from when they were kids. I found this impactful as he created an artwork that these kids felt connected to forever as they now bring their kids to show.

Here is What We Do Inside also known as: The 100 Balloons of Happiness is located at Sacramento Boys and Girls Clubs, 1117 G St. Ray used references of local kids to create the silhouettes of children from slabs of clay. Inside the statues, he composed the idea of having the objects of what the children were doing inside of them. Ray emphasized how public artworks are meant for the community, not to showcase your art style. He does a great job of this as he showed his personal artworks after these were completely different. 

From Ray's personal work, he expressed how he found inspiration from Robert Arneson's work and created works that related to Ray personally. The showcase of his personal work was my favorite of the talk. There were unapologetic, cultural, and comedic in his subjects.

 

This piece he presented was titled, Wetback, it is a ceramic piece modeled from Ray's back. He had the help of his friend to get the form of his back by slabbing clay on it. The spine of the back is depicted as a river and at the top of his shoulders is painted gold, showing the bottom half of the United States. The piece is a commentary on the stigma around immigrants in the US and is titled Wetback as a take-back of the derogatory word towards Mexicans. I was moved by this piece as I am of Mexican descent and my grandfather was from Mexico. When he moved my mom's family to the US, he worked as a farmer during the 70s so he experienced the Civil Rights Movements in California. Ray's personal work heavily incorporates Mexican culture and puts a modern twist on it.

This ceramic piece he titled Beaner, it is a depiction of a fetus with Ray's adult face on it, in the form of a bean. This work also takes back a derogatory term used against Mexicans and he proclaims it by embracing the culture of Mexicans. Beans are a significant part of Mexican culture so to form himself as the bean is a way of saying he is proud of his culture. 

Ray's self-portraits were my personal favorite as they are bold, playful pieces that convey the comedic personality of Ray. He discussed how he incorporates a lot of chilies in his work as a cultural element. These works were inspired by Robert Arneson but he put his own version on it. His work is inspiring as he shows us that work can have deep meaning about also be lighthearted. Incorporating one's culture can also help viewers make a greater connection to the piece and have the material to learn about a new culture.

Ray Gonzales narrated his journey of art beautifully and inspirational. He has dedicated his art to the community of Lincoln and Sierra Community College. His personal work speaks volumes about Mexican culture and his experiences.