‘The celebration of life’: $110,000 Natomas library sculpture honors late librarian

Living Colors, an interactive sculpture by artist Vincent-Michael Damyanovich, toured several districts in the Sacramento region before eventually being purchased by SMUD. One of the sculpture’s stops was the North Natomas Library. Amber Fawn Wooton-Clark, a library supervisor who was killed in 2018, was instrumental in getting it there.

Damyanovich and Wooton-Clark corresponded for seven months in 2018; on the day she was first allegedly antagonized by the man charged with first-degree murder in her death — Damyanovich was there to meet with her. Six weeks later, the man fatally shot her in the library parking lot, according to police and prosecutors.

This May, the second piece in Damyanovich’s Living Color series — commissioned by the city of Sacramento for $110,000 — was installed to commemorate Wooton-Clark.

But Living Colors: Open Book is not about “getting caught in the tragedy,” said Damyanovich. Instead, it’s about “the celebration of life” — and the celebration of the fact that the last time Wooton-Clark was at the “fullness of her life” was right there, in the North Natomas Library lobby.

Open Book seeks to provide a sense of peace for Wooton-Clark’s family and stimulate community conversations around grief, “which is a major step forward at a time when loss and trauma are really poignant,” said Damyanovich. At the same time, it’s also a symbol for literacy, inclusivity, and compassion.

Damyanovich worked in special effects for two decades before realizing his passion really resided in public art, and its ability to foster “an immediate connection to people.” Since receiving one of Sacramento’s Creative Economy Grants in 2017, he’s been producing pieces at the intersection of art, science and engineering.

Open Book, as well as the Living Colors series generally, dovetails with Damyanovich’s concept of “art as presence.” The aluminum sculpture contains nearly 1,200 LED lights, each with its own sensor, that allow visitors to affect it without touching it — a feature well-suited for a pandemic. Its glowing surface constantly moves and ripples; a waving hand causes it to change colors. Damyanovich calls the piece a “digital canvas.”

The public hasn’t had the chance to interact with it yet, but when the library reopens, Damyanovich is excited to invite people to do so while wearing headphones and listening to music.

“(Living Colors) is designed to really empower individuals through participation, while fostering a sense of being a valued part of our community,” he said, explaining the meaning of “art as presence.” For him, the modern age of pervasive cultural and interpersonal disconnect makes these goals particularly worthwhile.

Damyanovich will continue to pursue them with his next project — a third Living Colors piece called Canvas of Hope.

Out of the three districts toured by the first Living Colors sculpture, he said, the only district that doesn’t now have one is “our underserved community in District 6.” So Canvas of Hope — with a $15,000 investment from Damyanovich and support from regional politicians — is slated for permanent residency in the George Sim Community Center, which works with historically marginalized kids.

This project further illuminates Damyanovich’s commitment to what he understands as “art activism,” or art as a form of social outreach. The idea is part-and-parcel with “art as presence.”

“It’s a way to spark a deeper emotional experience, that kind of galvanizes and prompts people to take a different course of action,” Damyanovich said. “We’re giving people a different way of perceiving themselves in the world.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 8:55 AM.