The Kaneko Gallery hosted a reception on Sept. 1 for an American River College faculty art show.
“This is a great art gallery,” said art professor Linda Gelfman. “I think it’s really important for the students to be able to see what we are doing as faculty.”
“It’s about the viewer and their experience…and what they’re taking away from it,” Gelfman added.
Professor Gelfman teaches ceramics and has worked with both ceramics and fiber for the past seven years.
Among the art displayed in the gallery was a photography piece by art professor Jodi Hooker called “Wild Flower.”
“I really appreciate the faculty show every year because it’s a chance to let students know what we’re doing outside of the classroom as a whole not just in our classroom,” said Hooker.
To create her digital piece, Hooker used tri-color gum bichromate over cyanotype.
The medium gum bichromate “is one of the first color processes in the 1800 and then it died out because it’s challenging and difficult,” according to Hooker.
The first step to produce a modernized piece is to shoot digitally, then “to produce digital megatune for each color channel in the image, and then print a blue layer, a yellow layer and a pink layer; and then the colors come back together into the natural color.”
“It’s been resurrected because it’s so easy to make the negatives digitally now,” Hooker added.
Also attending the faculty art reception was ARC student Lahel Fowler, whose favorite art piece was “Crow Call,” a piece by professor Craig Martinez.
“I like that it’s made with rustic and found materials. It looks intentional but appears very mishap, like it just fell together” Fowler says of the art.
Also exhibited was the figure drawing “Untitled Figure Study” by professor Sarah Mattson.
“I’m very honored that I’m able to show my work. I think it’s a wonderful experience for students to be able to see what the professors who teach the courses do,” said Mattson.
