Pablo Center holds Rhonda Willers exhibit — Practices in transformation: Grief, gratitude, love and time
Artist presents a new way of processing transformations through different mediums
Story by Jordyn Trnka, Staff Writer
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September 25, 2025
This exhibit can be seen from Aug. 4 to Oct. 12 in the James W. Hansen Gallery at the Pablo Center. There is an artist’s reception from 5-7 p.m. on Sept. 26. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)Rhonda Willers strung up 120 tissues on monofilament and used safety pins to express the movement that presents itself as people walk past. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)This is the expression of gratitude through the formation of 452 pinch pots. This was a common art form that Willers took on starting on January 11, 2021. She states that she “wanted to enter my studio practice from a place of gratitude and with reflection given all that had taken place in the previous year [2020] and all that was yet to be.” (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)This shows a side view of the pinch pots being held up on the wall with brass wire. Willers spent about 11 minutes on each pot, “I pinch small oval clay forms at the pace of my hands and mine. While doing so, for each form, I think of one person, one thing, one place, or one experience that I am grateful for.” (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)Towards the back of the exhibit, there is an interactive station that has paper and pencils to write out what one is grateful for. Viewers are encouraged to add to the bowl with their gratitudes. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)In the center of the space, there is a pile of tissues with stitched expressions of grief sent in by participants in the exhibit. At the entrance, there is a cart with the supplies to stitch a tissue with griefs and gratitudes. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)In “Hawk Dreams” Rhonda Willers focuses on, “veiling and revealing truths – the conscious and unconscious – intuition and imagination.” Viewers are invited to light a candle on the shelf to honor one of their dreams. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)Visitors are invited to sit down on the bench that has been covered in stitched tissues. They are encouraged to look out toward the river and take a moment to reflect. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)Mobiles hang from the ceiling, hovering over the center while representing time, which moves and flutters. There are 24 mobiles in total. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)The center of the exhibit titled, “The Color of Grief: (un)Locked in Amber Waiting,” encapsulates the idea of grief itself. (Photo by Jordyn Trnka)
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