“Creative Growth at 50: A Visual History”
Creative Growth
355 24th St., Oakland
Sept. 13, 2024
On view through Nov. 16
At the opening of the special exhibition “Creative Growth at 50: A Visual History,” a woman with a guide cane asked if I’d seen her reflectors. I didn’t know who she was, and I didn’t know what reflectors she was referring to. She held out her hand — at a different angle than I’d anticipated — to greet whomever it was I was. We shook. “What’s your name?” “Agustín,” I answered. I asked hers. “Monica,” she replied. By ‘the reflectors,’ she meant those on the bag slung over her shoulder, bejeweled by red rear bicycle reflectors.
“Do you have a bike?” she asked. I told her I did, but that I rarely rode it. I soon realized I was talking to Monica Valentine, whose work I’d seen before. I was rather starstruck, as I’d seen some of her pieces in “Into the Brightness” at the Oakland Museum of California last year. Hers is art that combines the visual and the tactile, fusing them together with fierce perception.
When I introduced her to my partner, Valentine again offered a frail hand, thrust into forward space. Blind from birth, Valentine wears prosthetic eyes, but her gaze is intensely present. Our conversation was open and free and deeply friendly. She told us she’s been at Creative Growth for 13 years. Valentine turned to her caregiver, Kristina Gutierres, and said, “They’re scratchable.” Kristina told me that “scratchy” means ‘really good,’ The compliment was flattering; we’re proud to be considered “Scratchy!”
Unfortunately, none of Monica Valentine’s works were on display at the Creative Growth gallery, but there was a plentitude of paintings and sculptures by other artists. The non-profit’s gallery opening was well attended and featured a small bar for beer and wine, a DJ, and a pizza truck outside — the deaf owned and operated Mozzeria Mobile Catering.
The night was supposed to be 1970s-themed, but I didn’t see many people attired for the occasion (or else I assumed that’s just the way they dressed). Director Emeritus Tom DiMaria, who has been with the organization for 25 years, sported an odd black wig and gave a few brief remarks on the show to those gathered, and I caught him afterwards for a few private private words as well.
Mr. DiMaria told me Creative Growth was founded in 1974 by Florence and Elias Katz for people with disabilities to express themselves. They ran the organization from their East Bay home for the first 10 years. Since then it’s blossomed into a thriving and well-respected space. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recently purchased 150 pieces from Creative Growth and Creativity Explored (another non-profit for artists with disabilities in San Francisco) for their permanent collection, the vast majority of the works from Creative Growth (140 pieces).
DiMaria said that this is significant in that it’s the first art collection by disabled artists to be in the permanent collection of any major museum in the country. SFMOMA’s show, “Creative Growth: The House That Art Built,” which opened in April, will run through October 6, with a 50th anniversary gala on September 25.
“Creative Growth believes that art is a serious profession,” DiMaria said. “Although the artists here have disabilities, theirs isn’t just arts and crafts — it’s fine art.”
After talking with Mr. DiMaria, I spotted an artist I’d met previously at a Creative Growth show, Jorge Gomez. He retrieved and donned a jacket he’d painted with pastel paints and “shiny paints,” modeling for a group of attendees who snapped away on their phones.
The show had sated our visual appetites, but we were ready for dinner. On our way out of the gallery, I stopped to once more admire a piece I liked, Kerry Damiankes’s “Macaroni and Cheese and Meat Loaf Brown Gravy and Lettuce and Cucumber and Carrots.” The pastel-on-paper work made me even hungrier.
On our walk back to the car, I couldn’t help but notice acutely the reflectors on passing bicycles. And my heart was light by knowing we were considered “scratchy.”
Creative Growth will celebrate five decades of creativity and community at their 50th Anniversary Gala at the SFMOMA on Wednesday, September 25.
