People gazed in awe upon the virtuosity of artwork that students crafted using various mediums such as clay sculptures, water paintings, digital art, ceramic, bronze pieces and color pencils during the annual Student Art Exhibition on Thursday, May 4.
This school year’s art exhibit was successful as the gallery had the highest amount of submissions from students. Although many exquisite pieces were submitted, the art department faculty could only select a minimal amount of work to be displayed in the Fullerton College Art Gallery.
Many of the exhibitions pieces were being sold and some students were able to receive a 70 percent profit back for their art.
“Is it so exciting to see so much high quality work from our students, we have the best students and the best faculty,” said Art Gallery Director Carol Henke.
Along with being the Art Gallery Director, Henke is the Professor of Art Business and Museum Studies at FC. Like many of the talented students, she also composes art in the form of textiles and fabrics.
The highly anticipated exhibition gave out recognition awards to selected students who displayed the most exemplary skills in their artistry.
Illustrative Arts major Brendan Kendrick received the Dean’s award for his piece “Laocoon” that was created by solely using color pencils.
“The inspiration behind my art was having a high technical aspect to it, getting as real as I can with the picture and see how far I can push it,” Kendrick said.
The large intensive piece Kendrick created during the semester took at least 30 hours to complete. The unique technique he uses for his pieces are simple but still have the three dimensional effect. He expressed excitement when he received an award for the second time in a row, as he previously participated in the 2017 Student Art Exhibition.
Tiffany Laplanche entered the show for the first time and was awarded honorable mention for her eccentric sculpture “Barry No. 1”. A freshman majoring in Fine Arts, she spent between four to six weeks and a average of seven hours on her sculpture during the semester.
“For my sculpture, I wanted to focus on capturing the full essence of the person. I used clay that was fortified with sand to make it really durable, its water based so it took a lot of maneuvering to keep the clay wet enough to work with,” Laplanche said.
Students exhibited avant-garde pieces of art that displayed radical color vibrancy, eclectic detail and were overall aesthetically pleasing to the crowd. The exhibition showcased an array of art from students who are working diligently at FC to master their craft.
“I think everyone is always trying to make their statement clear and thats what make people have their own particular style, they have something they want to say, and its always different, so art is always unique,” said Laplanche in regards to the exhibition.
.
The Fullerton College Art Gallery will display the Student Art Exhibition until Wednesday, May 16.