From 22 They Rise: The Story Behind My California Condor Totem
Some pieces of work arrive fully formed in the imagination. Others demand everything you have — and then ask for more. This totem is the second kind.
The Commission
Earlier this year, art curator Cheryl Thiele of Creative Art Services commissioned me to create a totem sculpture honoring the story of the California Condor. Cheryl is a volunteer condor tracker in Big Sur, Ca., and an advocate for the Ventana Wildlife Society's conservation efforts. She commissioned the totem and then donated it to the organization for its annual auction, raising funds for the condor recovery program.
She wanted it tall, carved, layered with meaning. We began collaborating, and what emerged over months of design, throwing, hand-building, carving, firing, and glazing is a six-foot sgraffito stoneware totem called From 22 They Rise.
The Work
The totem stands 72 inches tall and 16 inches wide, built from 11 oversized ceramic elements stacked on a steel pole, with a California Condor perched at the crown. Every element is wheel-thrown and hand-carved using the sgraffito technique — drawing through a layer of wet underglaze to reveal the clay body beneath. It is the same process I use throughout my work, and it is slow, deliberate, and unforgiving.
The inscriptions woven into the carved surfaces are messages important to the condor recovery: From 22 They Rise. No Lead Ammo. Let Them Fly.
Those three lines contain the whole arc of the condor story — the crisis, the cause, the hope.
Hundreds of hours went into this piece from first sketch to delivery and installation.
The Loss — and Going Back to the Wheel
The making of this totem was not without its own crisis. The base piece — the largest, most foundational form in the structure — shattered in the kiln during bisque firing.
There is a particular silence that follows that kind of loss in the studio. But condor conservation knows something about starting over from almost nothing, and so I went back to the wheel. The replacement piece became the foundation for the rest of the totem — and a reminder that the process, when honored fully, produces work built to last. Stoneware that has successfully passed through forming, drying, carving, glazing, and firing is remarkably durable, and this totem is designed for both indoor and outdoor installation, with many years of life ahead of it.
Why This Work Matters to Me
I work from my studio in Cambria on the Central Coast, where the landscape and the creatures that move through it are constant presences in my art. The stacking of elements mirrors something I find meaningful in the condor story itself — recovery built piece by piece, each generation adding to what came before.
The California Condor is now being spotted with increasing frequency near my studio. The condor's return to these skies is one of the great conservation stories of our time, and this totem is a tribute to everyone who refused to let them go.
Temporarily on View at Nepenthe in Big Sur, Ca.
From 22 They Rise is on display at The Phoenix Gallery at Nepenthe in Big Sur, California — a fitting home for a piece about creatures that ride the thermals above that coastline.
Huge thanks to Cheryl Thiele of Creative Art Services for commissioning this work, and to The Phoenix Gallery at Nepenthe for exhibiting the piece.
The totem is being auctioned by the Ventana Wildlife Society, with all proceeds supporting the organization's condor recovery work.
You can view the auction item online and place a bid until the event closes at noon (PT) on June 8, 2026.
TO COMMISSION: For more information about commissioning a totem sculpture for your own space or collection, please contact me at Patricia@PatriciaGriffinCeramics.com.
TO VIEW AVAILABLE TOTEMS: If you're interested in totems and large works currently available for purchase, please contact Laylon Whittaker at The Vault Gallery in Cambria, Ca., (805) 235-0735.