Cuesta College’s once seldom-used art gallery has been exposed with the help of a new gallery director and some dedicated students.
Thursday night’s faculty art show, titled Totally Exposed, featured varied pieces of art from the college’s instructors and attracted a crowd of 113 people, according to Gallery Assistant and Fine Arts Slide Librarian Pamela McKenna.
“I think it’s really good for the students to see what their instructors do,” McKenna said. “Rather than just standing in the classroom talking about art, it gives them a chance to see. their instructors put those words into action.”
Although the gallery, at 1,375 square feet, is twice as large as the original gallery which was in the school’s library, and boasts proper gallery ambiance with warm lighting and high walls, it didn’t have shows on a regular basis until Gallery Director Timothy Anderson stepped in three semesters ago.
“Because they didn’t have a gallery director, a faculty member would just put on a show when they were passionate about something,” Anderson said. “But it wasn’t on a regular basis so it was sitting 75 percent of the time and just getting used a little bit.now (we’re) on a regular schedule so hopefully the community is getting used to us being here and being open. We’re getting more attendance at our openings.”
Art Instructor Leslie Sutcliffe said that having the gallery among the school’s theater, music and art departments is better for showing sometimes-racy or over-the-top art.
“Having it in a library was constraining,” Sutcliffe said. “With things that were controversial, sometimes the library wasn’t happy and so (now) we have a little more autonomy.”
Sutcliffe added that the gallery is not without its challenges though.
“I would say our biggest difficulty is getting students who aren’t in the art department over here and participating,” she said. “It was in a more central location in the library (so) that was a little bit easier.”
Anderson, who teaches a gallery management class, said he has been working on getting the word out about the gallery.
“This is the best contemporary art space in the county and unfortunately we’re not open on weekends so if the public doesn’t get out here for our opening, a lot of people don’t get to see the good quality shows we have,” he said.
Besides showing student work, the gallery will be bringing in work by nationally known artists like Tom Knechtel and Leigh Barbier.
The mailer for Totally Exposed was created by Anderson’s students and made to look like a tabloid magazine with “Cuesta Tattler; Stunning Visual Confessions: Art Faculty Totally Exposed” written across the front.
“(The students) were talking about how you don’t know what a lot of the instructors do for their own art, it’s something that’s kind of hidden,” Anderson said. “Then all of a sudden, it’s out of the closet in the open so they went for Totally Exposed. It’s irreverent and it’s funny and it’s exactly what you’d expect from art students.”
The art itself was an assorted and mostly abstract mix of different mediums such as sumi ink on paper, Plexiglas, photographs, sculptures, wood, stoneware and acrylic on panel to name a few.
Anderson, whose surrealistic ink drawing was on display, pointed to a mixed medium piece he liked the best. It consisted of a vial of crude oil mounted on the wall with major oil company logos beneath it and red, white and blue tape on the ground running through a tape representation of the country of Iraq and leading up to a representation of the World Trade Center on the adjacent wall.
“(This show is) like a salesmen technique,” Anderson said. “It’s really good for students to see if they really like (an instructor’s) painting then they’d be more inclined to take (that instructor’s) class. I think it’s a way of getting people excited about what different instructors are teaching.”
Engineering junior Bo Pierce was studying a piece of wood shaped into a dog titled “Bark.” He offered his frank opinion of the show.
“I see some stuff I really like but there’s a lot of crap in here too,” Pierce said, pointing to black and white photographs of children’s toys.
“The two photos over there. I could find better stuff with almost any random Flickr search.”
Kasey Krebbers, whose boyfriend is Cuesta’s fine arts technician disagreed, saying she enjoyed all of the art.
“There is quite a show. It’s really interesting to see that the teachers do in their spare time,” she said. “They put a lot of energy into this and obviously a lot of passion. (Next to those photographs) there’s a frog (on the wall) that has died and is totally petrified and there’s maggots in its mouth. That is a pretty amazing find.”
Art student Jen Velasquez was standing close to one of the large abstract paintings, her hands folded in front of her as she studied it intently.
“(I’m) figuring out how they got all the little cubes (in the painting),” she said. “Getting closer you realize how much effort and a lot of time went into painting all those little squares and taping things off to get the precise line. I think (the show is) really eclectic.”
Velasquez, who has a bachelor’s degree in art and is taking some classes to prepare for a master’s degree, is one of Anderson’s gallery management students.
She said putting together the faculty art show was a challenging experience between preparing press releases, hustling to take down the last show and put this one up in a short amount of time, trying to decide where to hang what and making sure the art is presented correctly. However, despite the stress, Velasquez said the end result made it all worthwhile.
“Once everything’s cleaned up, you have a gallery that’s full of artwork (and) a finished product,” she said. “It’s really (makes) all that hard work that went into putting the exhibition together really rewarding.”