Pray and Be Thankful: A Personal Dive Exhibit

Our very own K. Pontuti takes us on a deep dive journey through their incredible sketches and doodles dating back to the early 90s. On top of being a professor and a director, Pontuti is also a talented artist: they share with us some personal insight into their life through these personal logs.

See these amazing works at the Reynold’s Gallery, located just behind the Pacific Garden, where the quirky little signs lead you into their world of expression. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

You’ll be enthralled by this showing, some things are political, some things quite quirky, and some things will have you asking questions. 

One of my own was: why do some of the drawings have pointy ears? Pontuti explains that they were a fan of Star Trek as a child, and if you’re familiar with it, you’ll recognize Spock’s signature ears and sign of greeting. It was one of the few shows to be so progressive in it’s portrayal of both men and women, interracial relationships, awareness when traveling without imparting their ways on new cultures. It transcended the very narrow minded views more popular at the time. You’ll notice little things such as this as you explore the gallery. It became a little fun detail of their art that holds a lot of meaning and compositionally makes the art more graphic.

In the making of the show, Pontuti describes life in San Francisco, delivering packages, riding a bike, connecting with new spaces, and working their way out. 

They describe sometimes doing a drawing at a time, immersing themselves in their personal space as a form of simply getting to the next day. This led to the name of the series: “Anything 4 Another Day”. 

Soon, life continued, marriage, a daughter, and a still unchanging narrower view on how to live in the world. So, the drawings were eventually stored away. Nonetheless, there was still that gravitation towards creative things. Early COVID times were a factor in pulling out these boxes again, and led to the scanning of the images that allow us to view them now. They kind of became a conduit for figuring stuff out. 

There is a lot to take away from this gallery and a lot to learn. It’s a heartfelt and personal perspective that everyone should see. Visit anything4anotherday.com or their Instagram to explore more about this project and see it yourself as it’s available now through October 21st!