Correction: Skylar Angel Silva was misidentified as a she.
Pierce College’s Department of Art and Architecture presented their annual Student Art Show and Award Ceremony in the Fine Arts and Art Gallery buildings on May 3 from 6 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.
This year they brought back the People’s Choice Awards where the people get to help choose the winner by dropping votes in a box. The guest juror Erika Lizée made the ultimate choice of who wins.
The winner was Skylar Angel Silva, a life drawing student, who used graphite to draw a picture of a cake they made to come out about being transgender, and it reads, “Your Son is Trans”.
“I never submitted my art for anything or even have it displayed,” Silva said. “I didn’t expect to win.”
Silva tries to express themselves through their art.
“I thought using my art would be the perfect way to express myself and come out,” Silva said.
Art Gallery Graphic Design intern Crystal Hall, handled all the marketing for the art show.
“I designed the posters for the art show with the thought of trying to attract people to come to it,” Hall said. “and then I posted and promoted them up around the campus.”
Hall wants more people to see the art.
“I’m trying to get the art more exposure when I market the show,” Hall said.
Monika Ramirez-Wee, Director of the Art Show, explained the process of how the show gets put together.
“I ask the art professors to tell their students if they want to submit art in for the show,” Ramirez-Wee said. “If there are similar ones, we choose the best one out of the bunch.”
Ramirez-Wee pointed out that the process is not based solely on skill.
“We also look for the back story when choosing the pieces,” Ramirez-Wee said.
Ramirez-Wee also explained how the guest juror is chosen.
“I try to choose someone in education, so they are more familiar with student work,” Ramirez-Wee said. “More specifically I try to choose someone from a school that a lot of art students transfer too, so that we could collaborate with them.”
Ramirez-Wee also gave history on the art show.
“The Art Gallery has been here since 1958,” Ramirez-Wee said. “I imagine that the art show has been going on just as long as there has been a space to highlight students work.”
Donations are made by Graphaids, an art and digital design supply store, as well as by participants in the donations box around the art gallery. This allows the art show to be possible and makes it possible for the first place winner to get a prize, according to Ramirez-Wee.
The Art Show will be held in the Pierce Art Gallery every day from 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. until May 24.
