Student artists offer variety

Andrew Edwards

Hidden away among the hoopla of festival season lies Gallery 821,

home to several works created by the students of the Laguna College

of Art and Design.

Every summer, the gallery opens its doors to the public for the

college’s student art sale, in which students can show their

creations and get a taste of the art business. Submissions are

reviewed by a faculty jury, and all of the art on display is for

sale.

“It helps them to think of their work in a more professional way,”

said Jonathan Burke, dean of fine arts.

While the college’s fine arts program specializes in teaching

representational art rather than abstract pieces, there remains a

great variety of art in the show.

“People will see still-life, both paintings and drawings,” Burke

said. “They’ll see landscapes, figures, interiors, oil, pastels,

watercolors. Every painting and drawing medium.”

One of the still-life pieces at the show is Veronica Obermeyer’s

“S.O.S.,” an allegorical work that portrays a lizard, a doll and a

stuffed rabbit playing out the tensions between good and evil under

the light of a household lamp.

“It’s kind of talking about saviors and heroes and feeling

helpless,” Obermeyer said.

She explained that the lizard represents evil, the doll, which is

laying on its back, symbolizes docility, and the rabbit, as an animal

associated with Easter, represents good.

College trustee Mary Ferguson congratulated Obermeyer’s realistic

lighting effects.

“The light is like someone plugged in your painting,” she said.

Student Sergio Rebia contributed three paintings, a still-life and

three portraits, “Chente by the Bed,” “Sullen Delight” and “Fruits of

Faith.” The first portrait depicts a homeless man against a gray wall

and pipe at the Santa Ana riverbed, and the second shows a fellow art

college student in a black dress running her fingers through her blue

hair. The third shows a young woman whose head is covered by a

yellow-striped shawl looking up with wide eyes against the background

of a graffiti-covered wall.

Rebia’s homeless character smiles at the viewer and looks like

he’s a little drunk. Rebia said he got the idea for the painting,

which is a triptych of three homeless men that hangs at the college,

from seeing homeless men while jogging near the river. He was also

inspired by Diego Velasquez’s “Los Borrachos.”

“Sullen Delight” he said, was inspired by his subject’s Gothic

style, and “Fruits of Faith” is an attempt to show hope in the

aftermath of despair.

“I just really like portraits,” Rebia said. “I never get bored of

seeing expressions, just looking at people.”

One of the students who sold a painting, David Richardson, said he

had mixed feelings about letting go of the piece. His personal

favorite, the work was a painting of his fiancee, Trisha Cupples.

“I was a little bummed because it was actually my favorite piece,

but it was nice to know that somebody else liked it and can

appreciate it,” he said.

Through Wednesday, the gallery has sold about $2,500 worth of

student-created art, Burke said.

The sale will be open through Aug. 21. Wednesday evening was the

scene of a special occasion for the college as trustees and

administrators celebrated the success of meeting the demands of a

“challenge grant” made by former trustee Dee-Dee Anderson-Poiry and

her friend John Delfino. In December, the pair promised $50,000 to

the school if they could match that amount by June 30.

The school beat the challenge by $20,000, said Julie Bondi, the

school’s director of advancement, by seeking help from various Laguna

groups.

“The community showed up in spades,” she said.