“Back to the Source,” Bakersfield College’s celebration of recent art work by BC’s art faculty, including new adjunct faculty, was thought by many interviewed attendees of the Oct. 12 reception at BC to be a prototype of uniqueness and originality and befitted the title of the show.
Margaret Nowling, director of the Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery in the BC’s Grace Van Dyke Bird Library, said the art showing was the first time that patrons were introduced to the works of the new BC art faculty.
“This is the first faculty show in two to three years,” Nowling said.
Patron and BC student Brian Pelham, 45, and graphic arts major, said, “I like the bunnies.” Pelham was referring to a work of embroidered bunnies on a girdle titled “Bunny Garb” by Rebecca Edwards, BC art instructor.
After looking at Edwards’ work titled, “Support System,” which consisted of wire and fur fashioned into a bra and stitched into a huge tea strainer, Pelham turned his attention to BC art professor David Koeth’s photos of beads, stones, and rings in different degrees of lighting.
Speaking of Koeth’s photos, Pelham remarked, “these are just (pictures of) objects. They leave a little to be desired,” he said.
Edwards, speaking of her work, which included a graphite and acrylic depiction of an egg beater with a gnarled wad of hair at the top and an expended fire cracker or party favor at the bottom, titled “Circus,” quipped, “hopefully, it’s humorous.”
“These are my reactions on women’s experiences,” Edwards said of her works.
Edwards cautions the spectator not to take her works, which include a blue-bonneted infant perched awkwardly upon a tall stool, titled, “Rapunzel is OK,” too seriously.
As BC student Veronica Amador, 31, and a nursing major, stood observing BC art professor Brandon Sanderson’s work on stone lithography, “Melancholia,” she remarked, “I like this (drawing). It’s the direction of the lines,” she said of the drawing depicting canoodling birds wearing medieval armor and holding spears while rockets and alien spaceships fire off in the background. Sanderson teaches at Cerro Coso College.
Some of the attendees said they liked the more sedate, placid and simplistic works.
“It’s so tempting to just reach out and touch it (the painting),” said BC nursing major Jo Myrine, 23, of BC art professor Cecilia Noyes’ “Seal Beach Sentinel, 2006” with its greenery and iridescent water.
One interviewed BC student attendee remarked how much she liked how the lights bounce off in professor Kristopher Stallworth’s photographic portrait of Memphis titled simply, “Memphis.”
Speaking of the presence and the works of the new faculty, including new adjunct faculty, retired BC photography professor Harry Wilson remarked, “The new blood is welcome. Not that the old blood was lacking, but it’s nice to see a different look,” Wilson said of the new art professors.Wilson said he was truly impressed with the showing.
“The photos of the circles by Koeth are the best,” said BC student Charlene Castillo, 18. “They (Koeth’s photos) have really clear colors that blended really well together.”
Of his works, Koeth said that he was “playing with issues of scale. They (his photos of rings and beads) are actually tiny in real life, of course. Digital technology makes them big. Basically, I’m using a scanner as a camera.”
“This (art showing) is demonstrative of what instructors do,” said Chalita Robinson, retired BC art professor as she observed the works of BC art professor Adel Shafik and his “Self-Portrait” series, especially the work titled, “Intaglio,” which shows an enormous imposing black face with an impressive proboscis overseeing an urban ghetto setting.
BC art professor April Durham, another artist featured at the reception, explained her work, which included the cherry-ridden collage, “Clear Laser Labels: a Chromophobic Dissection, 2005,” as being an attempt to congeal Central American author Luis Borges’ concept called the “Aleph.” Durham explained that Borges’ “Aleph” holds that “all space is visible at all times.”
Apparently no less philosophical was long-standing BC art professor Marlene Tatsuno, whose featured contribution to the showing was stoneware and mixed clay stoneware including her “Variegated Pot” and her “Low Pot,” said her work “represents some of the wonderment of genuine beauty of diverse minerals that the Earth gives us. We should respect the Earth’s gifts and use them properly, “she said.
“Back to the Source” will continue to run through Oct. 25 through Dec. 7. The Gallery is open 1-7 p.m., Mon. – Thurs. in BC’s Grace Van Dyke Bird Library.