Adrianna Rochester – General Assignment Reporter
Sounds of conversations echoes throughout the room as students and faculty members from various disciplines gathered to view artwork created by the faculty members of the Art Department. In their faculty only exhibit—located on the lower level of Buley Library—faculty members were able to submit their own pieces of art for the entire campus community to see.
The gallery lobby was filled with tables of refreshments for the guests to enjoy after viewing the professor’s work. Prior to the show Thuan Vu, professor of drawing and painting and George Cochenet, professor of ceramics, discussed the idea behind the art gallery.
This is the second gallery exhibit the faculty members have put together in this particular space, according to Vu.
“We wanted to make sure we use the entire room to properly showcase each individual piece of art,” said Vu. “We wanted both the full time and adjunct faculty members in all the areas—painting, sculpting, photography, sculpting, graphic design, ceramics and more—represented in the showcase.”
Cochenet said, since the faculty members had control over what pieces went into the show, it was his and Vu’s job to strategically display their colleagues’ work in their own spotlights without upstaging any single piece.
“The key is to maintain the flow of the gallery so that means every piece in the gallery has to be arranged in a certain way to that the viewer can see every piece as they walk through the gallery,” Cochenet said.
Among the many faces in the crowd was Lenymar Matos, a junior art major, who said, “A lot of the times when students pick classes they can sometimes feel judged by some professors and you ask yourself what is it that they know, but seeing all their work shows they know their stuff.”
Most of Matos’ professors teach about technique and the time it takes to produce a single piece of art, she said
Now that Matos has seen some her professor’s art work she said, it gives her more of an idea on what their work is like in terms of style and use of technique. The art exhibit inspired Matos to do better with her own artwork and motivated her to want to mastering drawing and painting more.
“It’s nerve-wracking to know my own art work may be on display in the gallery once I become a senior, but I’m excited for it,” she said.
All the professors did a great job, Matos said she liked every work of art in the gallery, but her favorite was a painting by professor Leeah Joo, “The Tornado that Loves You.”
Photo Credit: Adrianna Rochester – General Assignment Reporter