Art Takes a Walk for Life, Two Bay Area Residents Make a Stand Against Guns

On March 24th, while the nation walks with students in Washington DC, two local residents, an Art Gallery owner and an Artist that creates sculptures out of metal melted from guns, will be leading 100+ students, families and supportive community members down the streets of Menlo Park supporting the students demanding change. They will be starting at Art Ventures Gallery and walking to Hillview Middle School and back.

Art Ventures Gallery owner Katharina Powers and New York-based Artist Lin Evola, an artist that creates Peace Angels from metal melted from guns are two passionate women that have had enough of senseless gun violence.

Katharina Powers, mother of 4 children draws on her experiences in Germany to stand tall and make a change. She has approached every local police station and government official trying to organize a gun buy back project in Silicon Valley in her personal attempts to remove guns off the streets.

"I met Lin Evola the day of the Parkland, Florida shooting, and I tried to initiate a gun buy back project for SILICON VALLEY with the mayors. I sent emails to 30 mayors, 4 responded. So my mission is to support the kids. I have four kids on my own. Hence, organizing a Walk for Our Lives in homage to the many marches being held around the country."

Powers continued "Art is the highest form of hope" (Gerhard Richter). I am proud that I saw so many kids walking out March 14th and meeting them in the streets of Menlo Park and Palo Alto. It is a start, but we need this to continue until we have our goals reached. When I was a student, I went to East Germany every Monday demonstrating to take the Berlin Wall down, and we did it. We were persistent, devoted, and stood up. THE WALL came down. Right now we need to stand with the students and make a change."

Artist Lin Evola has been fighting this fight for decades. A United Nations Delegate who attends closed meetings on disarmament, Evola has always been passionate about getting guns off the streets and has done something artistic to support her cause. Evola creates "Peace Angels", sculptures forged out of melted metal decommissioned nuclear stainless steel, guns and other weapons of mass destruction. Evola has received tens of thousands of street weapons from the NYPD, LAPD, LASD as well as other California law enforcement. Evola has created sculptures for Los Angeles, New York and is in the process of creating a Globe Peace Sign monument for her beloved Bay Area.

Lin Evola began the Peace Angels Project in 1992 as an active art project that invites weapon donations, converting the once destructive armament materials into compelling images which provoke the possibilities of peace. During the more than twenty years of building the Peace Angels Project, creating art has been Evola's way of working out philosophical insights and foundational thoughts that have become actualized as the Peace Angels Project.

"Evola's sculptures and paintings integrate symbols of both affirmation and challenge to reach BEYOND words and touch a place deep inside of each of us. Her art pairs ancient symbols with weapons materials as she asks us to find common ground when we disagree, rather than to take up arms against one another. From primordial times to today, human beings have used symbols to represent prevailing cultural mores and expected standards for human behavior."

Evola is a force to be reckoned with and has the ears of the many thousands around the world looking for a peaceful change. She'll be bringing the Peace Angel to Silicon Valley, setting an example that of wanting a gun free Silicon Valley, and looking to initiate a gun buyback program to get weapons off our streets. Evola has been called the "US Gun Destruction Leader" with recent talks taking place in New York and Washington DC.

There will be a press conference on March 24th with local mayors, police dignitaries and Lin Evola.

Donations towards the Peace Angel for SILICON VALLEY can be done through the non-profit San Francisco Art Institute. www.sfai.edu

Flag by Art Ventures Gallery

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