Art show reception draws large crowd

Irina Pearson / Roundup

The turnout for the Annual Art Exhibition was probably the biggest seen at the Pierce College Art Gallery.

“The idea was to give students an opportunity to take their work out of the classrooms and celebrate their accomplishments,” said Constance Kocs, instructor of art at Pierce.

She said the annual show was a chance for students to feel what it’s like being artists and having their creations displayed for the public.

Crowds of excited students with their friends and family who came to support and admire their work filled the gallery as soon as it opened its doors.

Many of them came from the lecture that was given just before the beginning of the show in the next-door auditorium by professor John Onians, the founder of the discipline Neuroarthistory.

“There’s a very impressive mix of techniques and subjects,” Onians said. “A lot of human interest too.”

Kocs said there was no specific theme for the show and any Pierce student enrolled in an art class could submit his or her work, although some of them were guided by their instructors.

“We had to find an object we’re attached to and use it as a metaphor,” said Adorina Beit-Tchoutcheca, 17. “Mine was a pencil so I called it the ‘Road to Infinity,’ because I can create many things with it.”

Several paintings scattered around the gallery followed one pattern, depicting various objects that seemed to have no connection between each other.

Explaining the idea behind this mosaic, art major Lizbeth Beccera, 21, said her class was given an assignment to pick seven random words and combine them in their work.

“Some of the words our group came up with were aging, innuendo, whimsical,” she said.

“The theme that I had in mind was to show how we try to go against aging. Plastic surgery and all, how it becomes whimsical.”

Although several viewers argued that an artist should be allowed to create without any restraints from the public or scholars, it appeared the majority of the displayed work consisted of an abstract art only.

“There’s not a lot of representation, it’s mostly conceptual art here,” said Arrash Modarres, 25, who is pursuing his degree in fine arts. “Meanwhile, outside of the university system there’s a revival of classical realism and we need more of those examples.”

Pierce faculty and members of the administration also came to the show and shared their impressions.

“I think it’s amazing how far people go with their flights of imagination,” said Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh, vice president of academic affairs. “It’s all a part of the experience of going to college. I wish we could see their earlier works to see how people were unsure at first.”
Pierce President Robert Garber agreed with him.

“It’s amazing what our students do,” he said, pointing out at the ceramic display of sea stars and shells called “Beauty Within.” Its creator, Nicole Dembowich, said she loved to scuba dive and the ocean was “a part of my life.”

“I’ve been in love with it since I was six,” said Dembowich, 25. “All my pottery pieces are about the world of the ocean, something that not too many people get to see.”

The amount of talent presented at the show this year drew a large audience of art lovers.

“This is our biggest turnout,” said Armando Macias, who teaches Raku, a centuries-old Japanese pottery method during summer. “It’s because so many people are involved.”
This year’s Art Show once again demonstrated the variety of talent, vivid imagination and hard work among the students at Pierce

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