The Exhibit of Celebration
On May 16, the Archer Gallery at Clark College opened its doors to the annual student art exhibit. Dozens of students, their families, and art enthusiasts came to observe the art and talk to the students whose pieces were on display.
The event, hosted every spring at the gallery, is a chance to showcase and enjoy student art. Every piece of work was created for an assignment in one of Clark’s art classes, and is submitted in early May for review and a chance to be part of the exhibit.
From metalwork, to ceramics and photography, a wide variety of art is on display now through June 16.
“I like that it (the exhibit) celebrates different artists from different walks of their art career,” said Charlotte Miller, one of the student artists.
Miller found her passion for painting once she arrived at Clark. She is an architect and engineering major, but found art as a fun and rule-free way to express her creativity.
“I think that [architecture] is also art, but on a large scale,” said Miller.
She describes how architecture and painting have helped inform each other in her life. When she is designing a building, she can think creatively about using different colors, or seeing negative space work in a structure, Miller said. Or, when she is taking one of her drawing or painting classes, she sees different shapes in objects and how they are composed mathematically.
“[Architecture] has to be an art form, otherwise we’d have boxes everywhere,” said Miller.
Miller had two paintings accepted into the exhibit, both created for her painting classes. The smaller work is the first painting she created for her Painting I class. Her larger painting was created for an assignment taking normal everyday activities and instilling some type of extravaganza or uniqueness into them.
Jennifer Avens is another student whose work was displayed at this year’s exhibit. She is a longtime fan of art and photography, and has grown up passionate about the fields.
She pursued this desire throughout her education. When she came to Clark in 2010, she was a culinary major. However, she found out that the degree had a three-year waitlist while the culinary building was being remodeled. So, being the artist she was, Avens changed her major to photography.
Once Avens finished nearly all art or photography classes, she wanted more. She was allowed to take a special projects course, entailing one major piece developed throughout the quarter, and that’s where the art that is displayed in the exhibit arose from.
She spent over 19 hours producing a film, and countless more framing and shooting it. She was guided by multiple professors and said that she was proud of the final photos.
Avens has plans to pursue teaching art after Clark. She wants to teach photography or web design. Art has been a large part of her life, and she wants it to continue to be her passion throughout her professional career.
One artist who does teach photography at Clark is also the coordinator of the Archer Gallery. Senseney Stokes was responsible for gathering all the pieces of art for the exhibit and hosting faculty to decide what artwork would be displayed.
Stokes said it was difficult to pick the winning pieces and some of the art faculty spent many hours selecting the artwork. Stokes was then responsible for placing the art in the gallery and displaying it in the best way possible. She said creating the exhibit was worth the effort.
Stokes has been running the exhibit for three years, and loves being able to arrange the pieces and create the exhibit to its fullest potential.
“It’s just fun to celebrate the best of that work,” said Stokes. “It’s… giving students an opportunity to show their work and have it celebrated.”
