Senior art show reflects diversity

By Kirstie Hettinga
The Collegian

Senior art students at Fresno State are spreading their wings and launching themselves into the art world with their senior show Tabidachi.

Tabidachi translates to “just before flight” a title that Gallery Director Carol Hartman found appropriate for the showing that will highlight graduating students body of work.

The showing, which begins May 10 and continues through May 17, will showcase students who have graduated through the 2005-2006 school year. Different mediums, including painting, clay, printing and glass will be on display but the program is expanding to include less traditional art forms.

“We’ve put up a theatre in the back room so we have our video works too, animation, that’s our first year for that,” Hartman said.

While the work on display is the work of graduating seniors, the behind the scenes set up is the responsibility of students as well.

Hartman teaches gallery management classes and part of those courses involves handling the senior show. “This is their culminating project, so they all have different responsibilities,” Hartman said.

Cynthia Phillips, a junior with an emphasis in art history, said she would like to work as a curator in the future, which is why she volunteered to act as a curator for the showing.

Hartman said the curators are “responsible for all the paperwork, the hanging, deciding where the walls are going to be, and what color they are going and what kind of labels they’re going to have, and then arranging the work making sure that it has a good flow,” among other things.

Despite the massive amount off work Phillips said it has not been as hectic as she thought it would be.

“My idea was that I wanted to find something that just displayed it [the art] to the best of the artists’ original intention,” Phillips said.

Hartman said the diversity of work on display is a reflection of the instruction that students are receiving from the art program at Fresno State.

That diversity has provided a challenge for the curators who are reposinsbile for organizing the displays.
“It has been so diverse that it has actually been hard for us to find a cohesive flow to hang the artwork in,” Phillips said.

The art program’s exploration of new media can be seen a new feature of this year’s showing: chalk art.

Those who attend tonight’s reception from 5 – 8 p.m. can expect to see original works of art on the sidewalks, which will be created just for the showing.

Junior Ephrain Garcia has volunteered to design one of the chalk art renderings. He said he thought it sounded like fun and that he was interested in trying a different medium.

“I’m thinking about doing a lot of layering and a couple of abstract forms and then throwing the graffiti graf art on top of it,” he said.

Phillips said there is more tweaking to be done in setting up the showing, the chalk art has not begun and lights were still being adjusted Tuesday morning. But she said she is there to promote the students’ work.

“They bring the talent, and my experience is basically giving them the best way to show off their work,” she said.

Hartman said she hopes the showing is well attended.

Hartman said,“For the students this is their first, sometimes their first and sometimes the last time they will be exhibiting their work, it’s a good chance for them to see what their work looks like when it hangs in a gallery.”

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