By Maggie Luy
What do we keep, and what do we let sink?
Daniela García Hamilton approaches it through hand-embroidered cultural objects set afloat in painted water. Suspended between air and a spirit realm below, Kristina Rose Baker captures it in a diver paused mid-descent. It surfaces more quietly, embedded in layered brushwork by Vonn Sumner’s vast garden scene that reflects time and memory.
The Great Park Gallery’s latest exhibition, on view from January 25 to April 12, brings together three artists whose work spans embroidered portraiture, expansive charcoal drawing, and comic-inflected oil painting. These collections highlight moments of transition and the stories that survive them.
Daniela García Hamilton: Embroidered Paintings
As visitors enter the gallery, they are met with Daniela García Hamilton’s embroidered paintings. Her collection pairs small, passport-style portraits with larger, intimate works that explore her experiences as a new mother and the questions of what cultural and personal legacies to pass on to her son.
Prominently displayed is her double panel piece, “Flooded.” Objects resting in the water are meticulously hand embroidered, while the water itself is air-brushed. Hamilton builds her paintings by establishing darkest areas first then layering lighter colors on top.
“It’s supposed to represent how the ideas and some of the cultural things will eventually sink,” Hamilton said. “And it’s kind of like up to me to decide what stays afloat.”
With an undergraduate degree in drawing and painting from California State Long Beach, she now teaches high school students which is where she also found embroidering to be more inclusive for students.
From exhibitions in Chicago to Sweden, she hopes visitors see reflections of their own upbringing in her works, whether through family moments or the personal questions her pieces raise.
Kristina Rose Baker: The Diver
After more than a decade of holding the idea, Kristina Rose Baker’s “The Diver” finally came to life. She was first inspired at 16 by the fresco painting “The Tomb of the Diver,” connecting to it both visually and spiritually, as well as to her experiences swimming in natural bodies of water.
Rendered in warm earth tones and natural hues that nod to the original version, “The Diver” depicts a lone figure diving into what Baker interprets as a “realm of spirits.” She works primarily with oil paint, though The Diver exhibition also features large-scale charcoal drawings, using a process of beginning with small sheets of paper then adding more as the composition expands. Many processes of sanding, cutting and rearranging happen before a final composition is made.
“It was really successful for me in terms of just what it takes to make a painting… It’s really expressive and raw,” Baker said. “But then there’s also fine detail and rendering and drawing that sort of dissolves and leaves a lot very open-ended.”
According to her biography, Baker received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and has earned multiple fellowships and awards. She was recently awarded a grant and invited to be an artist-in-residence for two months at the Arroscia Residency in Pieve di Teco, Italy.
Through “The Diver,” Baker explores themes of risk, transition and uncertainty, inviting viewers to consider finding peace in the unknown.
Vonn Sumner: This is Krazy!
In the last room is Vonn Sumner’s “This is Krazy!” collection, a tribute to his close friend and mentor Wayne Thiebaud. Sumner first encountered Thiebaud as a student in his class at UC Davis, where the celebrated artist introduced him to Krazy Kat. Their relationship anchored the series and guided its development during the COVID pandemic.
The largest painting, showing Krazy Kat in a garden, grew from a smaller canvas and took five years to complete. Sumner wanted viewers to feel immersed in the landscape, which required multiple drafts. He used glazing, applying thin transparent layers over a dry base, and scumbling, layering light-colored paint over a contrasting base.
“All of that was an attempt to get it to feel fresh or spontaneous, like that small one felt,” Sumner said. “It was like trying to make a big painting that took a lot of labor, but trying to make it look like the small painting that it came from.”
Sumner’s style has been influenced by travel and his father’s work as a picture framer, and his paintings have been shown nationally and internationally.
The works are open-ended, allowing viewers to take away their own experiences. Sumner aims for audiences to feel the love and joy that went into this collection, reflecting his relationship to Thiebaud.
While the next showcase is yet to be announced, visitors can attend the artist talk at the Great Park Gallery on March 14 to learn more about the current works.
