“Pour It On!” Student photography, sculpture, drawings and paintings

On June 4, the school’s art department held an exhibit called “Pour It On!” The exhibit focused on Bellevue College students’ work, including photography, sculpture, drawings and paintings. In addition to artwork, refreshments and live music were also available, both provided by students. Specifically, the music was played by two up-and-coming musicians, Chris Schindele on guitar and Eric ‘Moe’ Weisner on the double bass, playing a jazz set to complement the artwork.
Students weren’t the only ones that attended the exhibit, however. Teachers and parents attended the exhibition as well. Dale Hoffman, a professor of mathematics, commented: “There are some really wonderful pieces here. I think it’s great for the students to have an outlet for their art besides their roommate or their family. It’s great that they get some exposure, as well. Not many artists their age get that chance.”
Lorne Daughterman, an ambitious photographer, was more than happy to comment on his own piece, a photograph that showed nothing but the crown of a man’s head in a circle of light. “Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if the artist was trying to put in some deeper meaning or if they just thought that something would look cool. […] That’s why I did my piece… I thought that it would look cool, so I did it.” Another artist, Taija Coons, gave her thoughts on the event. “I know some of the other students in the show, and I think it’s cool to see their work displayed,” she said. “I think it’s interesting to see work by students that I don’t know and from classes that I haven’t taken, like the 3-D design and sculpture. It’s great to see what the rest of the art department does, because I don’t really do that myself.”
The members of the art department and the photography department were instrumental in setting up the gallery. Ginny Banks, an adjunct professor in the photography department was one of the faculty members who was key to setting the gallery up. “I was in charge of matting, framing and choosing what went up, which was difficult,” she said. “We started with a lot of very well done pieces and weeded them down to what the space can hold. [We tried] to represent at least a little bit of everything. I’m really proud of what the students have done. Just speaking from the photography department’s perspective, there’s some really beautiful work here.” The featured art pieces range from the mundane two-inch-by-two-inch “snapshot” paintings of a mountainous landscape by Taija Coons to pieces far more surreal, such as a charcoal piece featuring a full-size “punk” with four pairs of arms spread in various positions behind him, vaguely like the Hindu god Shiva. A good deal of the artwork is more abstract than anything else, however: a drawing of a brick that has punched through a cardboard box, a sculpture made of cement and a piece of rebar that is reminiscent of a UFO. There are also a number of displays simply titled “Light Project,” which feature various sources of light either blocked or enhanced by the other elements, all within a box, forming a sort of shadow painting. The other elements can be anything from costume jewelry hung to look like a chandelier to a string of Christmas lights flashing on a prismatic background.