Caitlin Peterson
In Motion Staff Writer
Art professors critique student work because they want their students to grow and learn the craft. But everyone has wondered what the work of the critic looks like and now is your chance to see it.
Hanna Stocker/In Motion
Admission is free and open to the public and much of the artwork is available for purchase.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for students to see what the faculty is working on and to see where their professors are coming from. Through looking at our art, students get a rare opportunity to really see into our brains,” said Trent Berning, who organized the exhibition and teaches ceramics, pottery hand-building, wheel-throwing and art appreciation classes at DSC.
“My style is really utilitarian objects,” said Berning as he picked up one of his cup sculptures off the perfectly lighted platform without a second thought. “Cups are really intimate because the user feels the groves and gets to examine it up close. I love that they’re functional too.”
The first objects encountered upon entering the gallery are the intricate and beautiful works of drawing professor Pamela Griesinger. She has four drawings, three paintings and a 12-piece grid of etchings titled “Memorial/Found Objects” on display.
Affectionately known by her students as Miss G, Griesinger is retiring this year after working for Daytona State College for more than 30 years.
“I’ve never seen Miss G’s art before and it’s so detailed. It just really grabs the viewer. I love it,” said Brandon Bennett, a student and member of DSC’s Studio Rats Art Club, during the opening reception.
“Since she’s retiring, we really wanted the focus to be on her work,” said Kandy Lopez, a design and painting professor as well as the recent addition to the art faculty.
“On the other hand they featured me as well, since I’m new. I’m a figure painter and more than anything I paint people who I think have ‘swag.’ I was born in New Jersey and raised in Miami, so I know what real urban life looks like and it’s important to my work to capture the people and essence of where I was raised. People and their environment are connected, so that’s why in some of my prints the people are connected to power lines, because they give the energy to the city,” said Lopez.
Lopez won the Outstanding Faculty of the Month Award for February and will begin teaching drawing next semester.
“We volunteered our time and hung all the work ourselves. We all feel strongly about how we would like our work displayed and since we curated it, all the art is shown the way we want it to be,” said Berning.
The exhibition represents the breadth and scope of the Studio Arts faculty at Daytona State College and offer the opportunity to appreciate and celebrate a multi-faceted art faculty and its creative endeavors.
The Faculty Studio Arts Exhibition will be on display through March 18. For more information contact the News-Journal Center Box Office at 386-226-1927.