Written by Cara Goger —
MARIPOSA — The Mariposa County Arts Council and the Keith M. Bertken Veterans of Foreign War Post 6042 are pleased to present Hand-to-Hand, an installation by veteran Ehren Tool.
Hand-to-Hand will be held at the Arts Council’s Treetop Gallery May 1 – July 16. The installation is a part of an ongoing commitment to programming that addresses equity, access, and opportunity through project that support veterans, active military, and their families and are sensitive and responsive to their unique experiences.
The installation of over 200 ceramic cups addresses a wide spectrum of issues and concerns facing veterans and service people. Many Mariposa veterans submitted photographs, thoughts, and images of personal artifacts which Tool fired onto cups and incorporated throughout the installation.
“I believe the cup is the appropriate scale to talk about war. The cups go into the world hand-to-hand, one story at a time.
My cups have been called my soldiers. The vessel has often been used as a symbol for a person. I make work you can drink out of and hold, in the hope that people will spend time with the work.
The images on the cups are often graphic and hard to look at. You may be for or against a particular war but I think it is too easy for us to look away. I think we as a country and as humans should look at what is actually going on….I would like my work to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the world. That is a lot to ask of a cup…” -Ehren Tool
Ehren Tool is a ceramist and Marine Veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, and a Senior Laboratory Mechanician at the Ceramic Department at University of California, Berkeley. He received his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley and BFA from the University of Southern California and has exhibited his vessels across California.
Ehren Tool will give a free public presentation and demonstration Saturday, May 27, at the Mariposa–Yosemite Rotary Club’s Art & Wine Festival, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. on the Mariposa County Courthouse lawn, 5088 Bullion Street.
This program is made possible by the California Arts Council Veterans Initiative in the Arts Program.
The Mariposa County Arts Council is funded in part by the County of Mariposa, the California Arts Council (a state agency), and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).
The MARIPOSA COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL, INC. is an incorporated non-profit organization, created to promote and support all forms of the cultural arts, for all ages, throughout Mariposa County.
