From ceramics to printmaking, the 2025 Student art exhibition had it all. Taking place in the art gallery on May 8, 2025, the exhibition drew members from all over the community gathered to view Fullerton College art students’ work and award ceremony.
Fullerton College graduate Ryan Byl’s digital artwork titled “Twin Flames,” showcased a purple dragon caged with a sign that reads, “Needs New Home.” A wizard reaches out their hand towards the dragon’s snout, which is releasing smoke.
The class assignment for this piece was pet adoption, Byl’s interpretation went down a darker path.
“For me it was like coming upon some hoarder or collector where they have these exotic animals or creatures and they’re not keeping them as companions, they are keeping them as collectable objects instead of something living,” said Byl.
Byl said he wanted to bring the humanity of loving something that has been forgotten about into his piece. He took inspiration from his own bond with his dog, Jackson.
“I have a little dog and he’s like my little companion,” said Byl. “That’s the kind of bond I was trying to give. That feeling when you find that thing or person you connect with.”
His affinity for medieval fantasy video games influenced the fantasy approach he took for his art.
“I started playing World of Warcraft when I was 11 and Fable came out that same year,” said Byl. “Fable was the first game I saw concept art for and it was a fantasy game. It kind of opened my eyes to the kind of job you can get.”
After about an hour of viewing the exhibition, observers walked to the courtyard outside the arts building for an award ceremony. Ignacio Carrasco Padilla won the Best of Show award for his ceramic vessel, which was the concluding award decided among all the first place winners of previous awards.
Carrasco Padilla seemed caught off guard by his achievement. “The glaze is a little bit of a test for me,” said Carrasco Padilla. “So it was a surprise.”
Unlike Byl, Carrasco Padilla had no specific reference for his piece. “It was more spontaneous, it wasn’t anything specific,” said Carrasco Padilla. “I just went with the form.”
Byl was also awarded second place in digital art and while this may not be his first award, it is the one he is most proud of.
“This is an original piece where the other one was from an observational sketch or render,” said Byl. “I’m just really proud that it’s something from my own imagination.”
With a coffee cup, sugar packets and post-it notes arranged over a drawing desk, art major Lukas Petrina Morrison modeled one piece off of his messy lifestyle.
“I’m a little bit messy, I’m kind of everywhere, I’m a little bit cluttered so I thought why don’t I bring that into my piece?” said Morrison. “It’s kind of my raw idea-making-process physically embodied in a mess and pens and stuff everywhere.”
For the multitude of sketches littering the drawing desk, Morrison took note of the world around him.
“It really was just me going around Fullerton, LA and different parts of OC,” Morrison said. “Some of them are photos that I’ve taken and just try to fill this thing out.”
Morrison finds a sense of security in this Observational drawing, a style where people draw what is around them.
“Observational drawing has become a comfort for me,” Morrison said. “If I don’t know what to draw, I’ll just look around and if I’m uncomfortable somewhere I’ll take out my sketchbook so it really has become a home in some way.”
Morrison was also awarded honorable mention for printmaking.
The end of the night was marked by pieces being sold for their listed prices as well as one last final walk-through the gallery.
