This week I visited the art gallery at West Valley College and viewed many pieces submitted by other students. The gallery was small and informal and the walls were crowded with art. There was just enough room for the 20 or so students that were there. Benches were provided for viewing. It was a bit more claustrophobic to view art this way than in a traditional museum setting, where there is generally a lot more room to roam around. The other major difference between the school's gallery and every other museum I've been to is that in this setting, there are so many attention grabbing pieces crammed so close together that it is hard to absorb one piece without looking in many other directions at the same time.

It was interesting to see all the different media that are being taught at the school. Each media will evoke a different feeling for most viewers. Oil on canvas tends to bring about emotion, water colors are dramatic and eye catching and charcoal drawings can feel soft and endearing or dark and angry. 

Eviction, by Christian Monjarez is an oil painting on canvas. The piece caught my attention right away and held it for some time. The heavy brushstrokes and saturated colors used made me feel that a lot of emotion went into the piece and that carries through to the spectator. The piece is impressionist to me (I don't know what movement this piece actually belongs to so that's my best guess). The artist carries a story through different pieces of the canvas. In the left foreground of the canvas there is a mask gazing at the main subject. There is another eye in the right side background peering at the subject, a man who is central to the canvas and seems to hang his head solemnly or defeated. Other eyes or symbolic objects, such as the moon shaped object in the left background with the ominous grin, add to the intensity of the scene. I read this piece as being about a man who feels isolated from society and fights to find a place for himself in his world, which I think is a busy city full of lots of strangers. 

The use of water color in this piece, Theseus and the Minotaur, by Jody Pinault does not evoke the same immediate attention that Eviction did for me. However, upon closer look, the piece has a much deeper meaning. I like how the artist depicted a story through three different sets of eyes. She wrote words along the edge  of each urn that helps to explain the scene that she depicts. Water colors are so vibrate and I like the smooth texture that the artist was able to achieve.

In Always Watching, by Nataliya Shishkina is a drawing done with charcoal. I appreciate the quality of the drawing and found the ostrich to be quite lifelike. Initially, the piece is comical. After reading the title, however, I think the artist had a purpose for creating this piece other than to be funny. It seems a political statement to me. As though the ostrich, among other wildlife, is saying, "Hey, I'm we're you... humans... and don't like what we see." Humans are not only destroying our world with excessive consumption and pollution but the world of ostriches and all other animals.