Santa Rosa sculptor turns ashes into art for fire victims

Liz Neves cried the entire way as she drove to drop off a Ziploc bag of ashes on the front porch of Gregory Roberts’ Santa Rosa home.

The cinders were among the few things she had left after the Tubbs fire destroyed her Coffey Park home of 30 years.

Weeks after the inferno, she had returned to her Keoke Court property to collect her home’s ashes. Along with a scrawled note of thanks to Roberts, she left the baggie and note and drove away, still sobbing but feeling a bit lighter.

Roberts added her contribution to a collection of about 140 meticulously organized bags of ash donated by fire victims from burned properties. Working from his home studio, the Sonoma State University professor and chairman of the Department of Art and Art History will use them to create a glaze to adorn handcrafted porcelain pots modeled after the historic Fountaingrove Round Barn, a local landmark also lost to October’s firestorm.

After his creations are displayed at the Art Museum of Sonoma County in an exhibit opening days before the year anniversary of the fire, they will be given free to residents who turned in ashes.

“I don’t think he realizes how special this really is,” said Neves, 52, who plans to rebuild the home she shared with her husband of 32 years Everett, and their 24-year-old daughter, Nicole. “I told him ‘Gregory - you need to think about it like this. The piece that you’re making from our ashes is literally going to be the first thing I carry into my new home.’ For us, it’s really, really special.”

Roberts, a self-described sculptor and experimental ceramicist, came up with the idea for the project as the fires were still burning. He issued calls for ashes on social media and through community groups in late October. Containers filled with debris and sometimes notes chronicling stories of loss and hope started appearing on the front porch of his West Third Street home.

Ashes have come from Bennett Valley, Fountaingrove, Calistoga and Larkfield-Wikiup, some harvested from specific rooms that housed meaningful keepsakes.

“I hope people remember that everything changes - that things take new form and it doesn’t mean they’re lost, or the memories are lost,” Roberts, 50, said.

Each baggie is numbered - Neves’ is 67 - and includes the owner’s contact information.

Wearing a mask, Roberts sifts each bag of ashes, separating large and unusable debris into a bin in his 14-by-14-foot studio for potential use in another art project. He places the ashes inside the wide-mouthed porcelain vessels he creates on a potters’ wheel, and fires them in a kiln for 24 hours. The process sterilizes the ashes and burns off excess organic matter, a method he likened to cremation.

“In the process of burial, there are some things that are fairly universal; cremation is one of them,” he said. “That’s how we deal with sort of moving on to the next step. Fire itself is purification and so by sort of dealing with and addressing these things directly, that’s how people move forward. That’s why we have cremation and other rituals, so we don’t have to live in that moment for the rest of our lives.”

The ashes are then mixed with a deep red-hued glaze and used to coat the inside of the pot. The exteriors of the pots, which are all slightly different in shape and size, are glazed with the same red tint for continuity. He’s made 40 so far, and a test pot showcased a mix of glazes, mottled in a mix of murky green and golden yellow, with light blue streaming down its sides.

It’s a cathartic process and a method of healing for Roberts, who works in his sterile, white-walled shop surrounded by ashes that serve as physical vestiges of devastation, but also hope. He hopes the project will also restore community bonds broken by the fires.

“This is my method,” he said as his hands deftly shaped a lump of porcelain clay into an intricate pot. “This is what I like to do and I’m honored that people have responded and trusted me with this.”

Neves helped organize all the submitted ashes. She’s not sure exactly what she’ll put in her vessel, but she speculates it might house the few relics she recovered from her property, including a charred silver necklace with an emblem of Saint Christopher stamped with the words “Protect Us St. Christopher.”

She plans to continue helping Roberts as the project progresses to its next phases: a June 1 dinner to unite participants, and the yet-to-be-named exhibition at the Art Museum of Sonoma County.

The Sonoma Ash Project will be on display along with the Museums of Sonoma County’s own fire collections, including objects from burn zones and photos and digital files submitted online, Executive Director Jeff Nathanson said. The “Collective Spirit: A Community Reflects and Rebuilds” exhibit, which will open Oct. 6 and run through January, will feature work from other local artists, including cartoonist Brian Fies, from whose “Fire Stories” comics chronicled his experience with the Tubbs fire.

Nathanson said he was struck by the “generosity of (Roberts’) spirit,” and the Museums of Sonoma County last week became a sponsor to help collect the $15,000 needed for the project. Roberts’ GoFundMe page has raised nearly $3,500.

Nathanson said art has played a role in showcasing the community’s resilience and offering a respite from trauma.

“Everyone has their own individual experience, but there are a lot of shared experiences in the community and I think what art allows people to do is find a path forward … creative expression allows people to challenge their emotions and work through some of the things they’re feeling and gives them a place to put their sadness and loss,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Hannah Beausang at 707-521-5214 or hannah.beausang@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@hannahbeausang.