Verde Valley News – Teaching is only part of the story for many of Yavapai College’s Art faculty. Their in-class work is just one facet of a vision they express in surprising ways. Breadth, depth and tremendous technical skill will be on display when YC’s own Art Faculty members present themselves in paint, print and sculpture at the Yavapai College Art Faculty Exhibition, Friday, August 2 to Friday, September 6 at YC’s Prescott Campus Gallery.
“I love being a part of the YC Faculty show because it showcases the immense artistic range and talent of the instructors.” Metal Sculptor Rita Toikka says. The exhibition, she says, doesn’t confine faculty members to their teaching field, but encourages them to work wherever their muse is. In that spirit, Toikka offers two contrasting entries: A series of mixed-media sculptures called “From the Ether,” about the twilight area between sleep and waking life; and an interactive work, “#EndTrafficking,” designed to raise awareness about Child Trafficking.
Artist and Art History instructor Brandelyn Andres sees the show as an identifier: “It’s a great representation of who we are as artists, as well as who we are, together, as the Art Department.” It also allows her students “a wider view of who we are beyond the faculty that teach them.” Andres’ fiber artwork, “Dirty Laundry II,” uses a clothesline to examine the variety of adopted and assigned roles women must carry in society.
Toikka and Andres are two of the seventeen artist/instructors whose work will be featured in the Faculty Art Exhibition, including ceramicist/sculptors Laura Bloomenstein, Jill Brugler, and Jonah Fleeger; graphic artist Lindsay Masten; painters Ken Ottinger, Eric Boos, Bryan Robertson, Carl Dahl, Ben Norton and Dana Cohn; and woodworker Michael Werner.
“I always enjoy showing work at the annual Faculty Exhibition,” says artist Eric Boos. “It gives me a chance to share my latest artistic experiments, to see what the other art faculty members have been creating, and to exchange ideas with the faculty members. It’s low pressure, and fun.”
The Yavapai College Art Faculty Exhibition opens Friday, August 2, at 10 a.m., at YC’s Prescott Campus Art Gallery. An Opening Reception will be held Friday, August 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. – to coincide with Prescott’s 4th Friday Art Walk – with snacks and a cash bar. The exhibition runs through Friday, September 6.
The Yavapai College Prescott Art Gallery is located within the Jim & Linda Lee Performing Arts Center at 1100 E. Sheldon Street, on the Yavapai College Prescott Campus. The Gallery is open 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission is free. For exhibit schedules or more information, please call: (928) 776.2031 or visit: www.yc.visualarts.com.