Kimberly Cook of the Yountville Arts Commission, one of three judges of student artworks featured in the First Response exhibit, studies entries including "Reach for Home," a trio of miniature canvas tents by Grace Vanden Heuvel of Healdsburg High School. The exhibit consists entirely of works by Napa and Sonoma County teenagers based on their experiences with the North Bay wildfires last October.
Howard Yune, RegisterYOUNTVILLE — Four months after the wildfires, the skies were blue once more, the air again clean and crisp outside the Napa Valley Museum. But the memory of those days of flame and smoke and destruction suffused every piece on display inside a downstairs gallery.
It was Monday morning, and three women carefully studied an array of paintings, sculptures and photographs, all the work of students from five high schools in Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties. Their common thread was one of memories still as searing as the flames that erupted Oct. 8 – images of dust masks, evacuation tents, dogs scrambling from burning homes.
The “First Response” exhibit had opened in late January, and heading into its final weekend, the women were deciding which three teens would receive top honors at a reception Saturday afternoon in the Yountville museum.
"Peace and Tragedy," Grace Bouchet, Justin-Siena High School
Howard Yune, RegisterThe show had long been planned as the museum’s second annual showcase of local teens’ creative talents. But the trio of fires that had killed 44 people and destroyed thousands of homes was too enormous to ignore, and by mid-November organizers decided to make it the theme of this year’s exhibition, according to Ariel Loraine, the museum’s program manager.
Amid the thousands of pictures, and tens of thousands of words, published about the destruction and recovery in the North Bay, “First Response” may stand out in the way it gives voice to the area’s youngest, said one of the event’s three judges.
“It’s educational to look at the fire from the perspective of these kids,” said Jessel Miller, founder of Napa’s Jessel Gallery. “They’re dealing with their pain, and if this is how they express it, I’m glad they have an outlet for it.”
Panel judges (from left) Kimberly Cook, Ronda Schaer and Jessel Miller scored each entry in the Napa Valley Museum's First Response exhibit for its artistic intent, originality, use of media and alignment to the chosen theme. All of the artworks were created by high school students from Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties and are based on themes from the October wildfires.
Howard Yune, RegisterMiller joined Kimberly Cook of the Yountville Arts Commission and Ronda Schaer, the museum president, in scoring each artwork on a five-point scale for its artistic intent, originality, use of media and alignment to its chosen theme. Prizes for the best in show, first place and second place will be announced at a celebration at 2 p.m. Saturday.
At times, the line separating artistic abstraction from painful reality appeared razor-thin, even to the judges. Along one wall of the gallery was the pottery-red form of a person lying motionless and on one side, clothing draped over it – “Apparition,” a sculpture by Ryan Torano of Healdsburg High School.
"Apparition" by Ryan Torano of Healdsburg High School is a sculpture entered in First Response, an exhibit of student artworks at the Napa Valley Museum in Yountville. All of the entries are inspired by the experiences of those who survived the October wildfires in the North Bay.
Howard Yune, Register“Reminds me of Pompeii, in a way,” Miller said quietly over the piece, referring to castings from the voids left behind by those killed and smothered by volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. “That’s the first thing that came to me when I saw it – pretty heavy-duty.”
Schaer nodded: “I’m sorry that at that age, they had to experience that.”
Another entry evoked not the fires themselves, but the aftermath for some of those forced to flee them. Justin-Siena student Lauren Yung’s “Back Home” depicted canines driven out of their human companion’s house by the flames, while Grace Bouchet’s “Peace and Tragedy” captured a survivor’s persistence with a V-for-victory sign held over a mask-sheathed face.
"Back Home," Lauren Yung, Justin-Siena High School
Howard Yune, RegisterSchaer, meanwhile, turned her gaze toward “Reach for Home,” an installation by Grace Vanden Huevel of Healdsburg consisting of three canvas tents, the sort of temporary shelter that protected some evacuees last fall.
“I find myself in those tents and I feel the loss,” she said – “but also the hope and the safety, (compared to) the day before when I might have feared I lost everything.”
“Even if (the artists) didn’t suffer a loss,” said Cook, “they were connected to someone who did.”
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