Victoria Wagner

Artist: Victoria Wagner
Recent Exhibition: Four Barrel Coffee
Address: 375 Valencia St




Her artist statement:

"Geology, similar to the human psyche seems to bury things deep within. Both share the ability of never forgetting, just simply fossilizing and cataloguing even the most seemingly inconsequential passing notions or experiences.

In our actions, in our conversations and persuasions, those little bits of buried wisdom and peril rear up, like a latent volcano or fertile geyser….some to great occasion, but usually to typify where we have yet to do our greatest work.

Geology and the climate chaos has something to tell us…as well as our collective human psyche. I would like to hold faith that we will rise to the vastness and heroics of our expectations, that we will show signs of enlightenment, that we will learn to love our neighbor and dissolve any sense of enemy, mostly within ourselves. In the best version of our contemporary story with all of our mistakes visible, we could let all of the collective past roll off of our backs and start anew.

The most recent work recalls cognitive shift and clarity….as when buried emotion comes into focus. At once, awkward and uplifting, these moments of instability are our call to change, to process and to soften our reactions to one another and our environment.

And as I look around and realize that at once we are all experiencing great joy, sorrow, tragedy and chaos, it is the event of circumstance in our shared lives that allow us to really know one another. Our reactions to crisis, our thoughtful interventions, our insightful views…make us heavy, show us the meaning of pain, but force us to be real. And allow us the gift of observing transcendence… in total experience, the weighty can produce the light."