Their first big break

At December Art Walk, galleries will show works by students from Laguna College of Art and Design.In what will be a first for many, 18 senior art students at the Laguna College of Art and Design will have works exhibited and for sale at the First Thursdays Art Walk on Dec. 1.

The student art will be displayed alongside that of artists who have been selling their work for years, during the city’s monthly open house for the art community, which takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.

It’s a thrill for Philip Womack, 22, to see his untitled mixed-media work up on the wall of Marion Meyer’s North Coast Highway gallery with that of Quim Bove, whose colorful laminated works fill the front of the space.

“It’s great to be so accommodated, and it starts this trip off on a good note,” Womack said, referring to his fledgling art career. “It’s difficult to get out of the studio.”

Meyer is just as enthusiastic about Womack’s abstract work, which she likens to that of the late Jean-Michael Basquiat, whose works were featured recently in a retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Womack’s piece uses clippings and childlike pencil doodling combined with paint to create an intriguing, layered effect which he describes as “an attempt at mapping the subconscious.”

“It’s a fabulous piece and it should sell,” Meyer said of the work. “It’s a great opportunity to collect a piece at an entry-level price.”

Meyer sold a piece by the student artist she mentored last year.

The student sales will benefit the college and Art Walk, of which Meyer is president.

Now in its fourth year, the Laguna Gallery Professional Mentoring Program has attracted 18 galleries, whose owners have agreed to add a student’s work to their exhibitions.

“The mentoring program is a wonderful opportunity for graduating students to get an inside look at the business side of operating a professional art gallery,” said Dennis Power, college president.

The gallery operators agree that it’s vital for student artists to learn the business side of art.

“It’s very rewarding for the students,” Meyer said. “It instills confidence.”

Robin Fuld, professor of Laguna College’s professional studies course and a member of the Art Walk advisory board, came up with the idea of pairing gallery owners with seniors at the college.

Fuld places the artists with a gallery that handles similar work.

“My gallery is contemporary art, and I was very pleased with this student piece that is abstract,” Meyer said.

A drawing and painting major, Womack has embarked on a different form of art than is commonly pursued by Laguna College of Art and Design graduates, who learn classical techniques.

With graduation ahead in May, the Southern California native is contemplating graduate school in the East, where he is looking forward to experiencing winter for the first time.