The 25th annual Student Art Exhibit and awards ceremony held its opening reception on the evening of May 5. It features student art created over the past academic year. The exhibition will run through May 10.
The exhibition features art done in an array of multimedia styles, including, sculpture, ceramics, painting, drawing, printmaking, as well as digital art and photography.
The exhibition is featured during the spring semester, allowing students the opportunity to create a full body of work. The exhibit is juried by professors and faculty from outside universities.
“We like to hire, or engage jurors that are art faculty from universities that our students transfer from, or to because it gives them an introduction to those people teaching there, and might, ‘Oh you know I really like this teacher’, you know and check out more of their work,” said Gallery Coordinator Jan Marlese.
This year’s juror was Adero Willard, an artist and ceramics professor at Sacramento State, who was also featured in the Horton Gallery’s last exhibition, “Signing to the Difference: An Examination of Surface Strategies.”
There were 81 students who entered and 49 were selected to be featured, and 61 artworks are currently on display in the gallery and online, according to the exhibitions page on Delta College’s website.
Two separate categories, merit and portfolio awards were given out for media in ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic arts, and photography. Dr. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson selected a piece for the President’s Award. In each portfolio medium $200 was awarded and five $100 merit awards from the gallery sponsor Frank W. Clancy Memorial fund. The portfolio awards were only eligible for students with a major or minor in studio arts or multimedia arts.
As the end of the semester approaches, students featured in the gallery reflect on their time spent as an artist at Delta and how it shaped their personal art journey’s.
“I didn’t think of myself as an artist at any point, then I joined ceramics class and Shenny Cruces was extremely inspirational and very supportive of my work, and she would always call me an artist even though I didn’t really think of myself, and I think having that support system at Delta helped me,” said featured artist Dylan Jaekel, whose piece is “Spider-Pot.”
Another featured artist, Johnny Sparks, spoke about growing as an artist over the past semester, and how her journey as an artist has evolved.
Her two featured pieces are “Pillow Pet”, and “Life and Death”, both very different, “Pillow Pet” is acrylic on canvas, whereas “Life and Death” is done with soda fired, burnished, natural clay.
“I know what I like more now, then when I started, my Pinterest board is full of ideas … so I really like to see more of what I like to do and going into next semester with ceramics, so I’m like I already know what I want to do,” said Sparks.
The artists draw their inspirations from various sources, including their own interests in various subject matters, or personal experiences.
“I take inspiration from my past, and I just want to work through things I went through childhood, so it’s mainly just to explore my identity,” said artist Leah Le. One of her featured pieces, “A Mother’s Love,” acrylic on canvas, is a close up of a mother embracing her daughter, who lays back on her mothers chest and is looking directly at the viewer.
Whereas other inspiration comes from more playful ideas: “My “Spider-Pot” for my mum, because she’s British, she loves tea, and she absolutely hates spiders,” said Jaekel.
Though not all students pursue a degree in the arts, the opportunity to be part of classes at Delta and expand their skills has provided ways to creatively express themselves, and find recognition and community with their fellow student artists.