"Creative Convergence" on Dec. 3

K. Patricia Bouweraerts
Portfolio Students Hang Artworks

Portfolio Emphasis students curate and hang the "Creative Convergence" exhibition in order to be ready for the opening reception on Saturday, Dec. 3.

Walking past 13 Portfolio Emphasis students measuring and hammering in the studio space at Artech in Reno, you can see other artists blowing glass in fiery ovens glowing orange inside, and sculpturists bending metal into entwined, geometrical shapes.

Students in the studio are curating their collaborative class exhibit—hanging frames, positioning a screen behind a partition, taping up transparent sheets of tracing paper drawings on tall windows, and brainstorming placement of photographs on folding walls. They are preparing for the show and reception on Saturday, Dec. 3.

“Artech is a nonprofit organization for community artists who work in 3-D,” said Candace Garlock, Truckee Meadows Community College Galleries Curator and Art Instructor. “There is even space for Burning Man artists.”

Live music will be presented at the event by Damonte Ranch High School Chamber Orchestra musicians Kara Bainter, Erin Hunt, Caroline Blair and Khue Doan. Everyone attending will also have the chance to graffiti a desk in the Artech gallery.

  • When: Saturday, Dec. 3 from 4-7 p.m.
  • Where: Artech, 130 Woodland Ave., in Reno

The show will be exhibited at Artech for one week following the reception. Call 775-746-0693 for gallery hours.

Photographic Techniques

TMCC student Chelsie Anderson was hanging her photographic prints on a multi-sided black folding wall. She captures landscapes and outdoor subjects, bringing them into Photoshop to make them black and white. The next step is to bring back in color to selective areas in the composition. They are printed on canvas and stretched to the mounting frame. The common theme is water; its scarcity and pricelessness in Nevada.

“I like the reflections you find in water,” she said. “I find something in the reflection that would create the effect of moving a viewer’s eye to focus on the water.”

Macario Mendoza-Carrillo was positioning his large-scale works on paper and aluminum on the opposite wall. The photographic subjects look like interwoven tangles of lighted lines—radiant yarn-ball shapes and rhythmically distributed pools of light.

“I take pictures of people, but you can’t see them, just their presence,” he said. “You see their presence by a light they hold as they’re moving,” he said. “Because the shutter is slow and they’re wearing black, you can’t see them in the finished print.”

He leaves the shutter wide open for one to five minutes. His subjects are typically not afraid to move in unusual ways or swing around the flashlight or other light source.

“They move—it’s their expression—where they move is up to them,” he said.

Animation Exploration

Alexandria Righetti is setting up her laptop and projector in an area where viewers can catch her work in “Process Is the Art”. She was first inspired to work in animation as a child.

“After the credits in a DVD of the Disney film Bambi, I watched the ‘Behind the Scenes’ section of how they hand-fed deer behind the studio lot and the animators drew them while they were getting bottle fed and playing,” she said.

She was also inspired by the detailed and meticulous work of Studio Ghibli, and finding out how many drawings have to be done to create a short animation. Her looping presentation is 10 seconds, but is composed of 90 hand-drawn slides and more than 100 digitally-drawn “between” slides in order to create a smoothly flowing animation.

Righetti is completing her associate degree in order to transfer to a four-year program in animation and would like to be an animator in movies or for games.

Painting, Printmaking and Drawing

Hanna Avalos was measuring precisely before hammering in hangers for the many sections of her display. It’s a repeated sequence of retro-styled, colorfully painted butterflies. She is protesting negativity.

“All of these are inspired by protest posters of the 60s,” she said. “I wanted to draw attention to the positive. The butterfly also represents transition and change. They show my journey as an artist and mother. Key positive words in the compositions represent positive changes in life.”

Kumutra Hlape placed long transparent sheets of tracing paper onto the high windows, so that light will shine through the intricate charcoal drawings of skeletons and other bones. Sue Roberts and Diane Clarkson were measuring to hang framed works of printmaking.

Full Artist List

  • Chelsie Anderson
  • Hanna Avalos
  • Bailee Banta
  • Diane Clarkson
  • Minh Doan
  • Kumutra Hlape
  • Breanna Inga
  • Jolene Lewis
  • Macario Mendoza-Carrillo
  • Carla Miller
  • Alexandria Righetti
  • Sue Roberts
  • John Sanders

For more information about the visual art exhibit “Creative Convergence,” please contact Candace Garlock at 775-674-7698.