Visual Arts Gallery brings beauty to life

By Lupe Treviño
Pulse Staff Reporter

Photo of the new Visual Arts Gallery at Palo Alto College.

Visual Arts Gallery, Room 100, in the Visual Arts Complex. Photo by Lupe Treviño.

Palo Alto’s juried student art show features the creative talent we have on campus, not to mention the enhanced learning environment that PAC has brought to its Art students.

In 2005, local residents of Bexar County voted to support bonds totaling $450 million to help renovate all existing Alamo College campuses and to build new facilities to help keep up with the District’s ever-expanding population.

Classes such as Design, Foundations of Digital Art, Drawing, Digital Drawing and Painting, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics and Photography are all benefiting from the new changes in their surroundings.

“It’s a better place to produce work, and a better learning environment for our students,” said Bailey Lathem, Chair of the Fine/Performing Arts and Speech Communications Department.

Lathem also mentioned the excitement she had about the addition of the college’s brand new Convocation Center that will house Dance, Music, Theater and Speech classes. The grand opening is scheduled for the beginning of the Fall 2009 semester.

The new space made available in the classrooms certainly showed up in the work of the student artists whose pieces are displayed in the new art gallery on campus.

The gallery, which was pulled from a dream and made into a reality in the fall of 2007, has featured some notable artists. The gallery is located in the newly renamed Visual Arts Center, formerly the Fine Arts building, in Room 100.

Taking a walk through the gallery is like strolling through a maze of imagination that one can truly feel when taking in the art on display. The works seem to jump off of the canvases and take you on a ride through a galaxy of mixed emotion and multiple scenarios.

The lighting on the pieces is perfectly adjusted to capture the different angles and shades of the works. The sculptures on display seem to grasp your attention as you slowly walk by, calling your senses to notice the detail put into these pieces.

“There are a lot of talented artists here at PAC. I think people should come by and check them out,” said 20-year-old Palo Alto Art Major Jessica Alcala.

Alcala was the winner of the black and white photography contest. Her portrayals of a skeleton in her photographs seem to really catch the eyes of the judges in the way she used different spotlights and angles. The show was juried by all full-time art faculty.

“I was shocked when they told me I had won,” Alcala said. “There were just so many other amazing artists.”

As modest as Alcala is, she added that the new spacious classrooms and studios were a big help in preparing for the art show. She added that the new photography lab was especially amazing, and she praised the faculty for giving her the encouragement and the motivation to get out there and show her work to the world.

“People from other institutions have come by and are very impressed with our new Photo Lab,” said Professor of Art Mark Hogensen. “It is amazing and it is inspiring a new generation of artist coming up.”

Upon walking through the new Photo Lab, located in the Visual Arts Center, formerly the Performing Arts Building, one will take immediate notice to why the student art show has received such praise. The tools offered to student photographers allows them to create without boundaries.

One can take advantage of the spacious dark room where he or she can begin to bring to life moments captured on an adventurous photo shoot or a class assignment that will surely earn them an A plus.

Others can use the new digital equipment and software to edit their photos and bring any creative notions to the table. Students are able to exchange different ideas with their professor and classmates.

New drawing and painting studios have given student artists enrolled in these classes the space needed to shape their creations as they see fit without being limited by space.

“The studios are wonderful,” said Lloyd Walsh, an Art professor here at PAC. “Great integration of old and new.”

Walsh directed the student art show and praised all of the work submitted. “The quality of the work is great,” he said.

Palo Alto College’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa submitted two of the show’s unique pieces. They collaborated with several student organization and faculty members to create a sculpture and a mobile using recycled plastic bottles. The pieces symbolize a message of unity among the Palo Alto student body, staff and faculty in support of the college’s new recycling program.

Anyone wishing to stop by and visit the exhibit can do so from April 6 to April 30, in Gallery 100 located in the Visual Arts Center. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. This exhibition is free and open to the public.